War! What is it good for?
by CoffeyJoe
Summary: AU, Jaune Arc is known as the adorkable knight of Beacon and is widely considered kind of a jellybean. But what they don't know is that his father is the polar opposite of Jaune. Sent into the world of Remnant Jaune must find a way to impress his dad to get back home one day. But what do you do when you're a demigod?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello guys and gals! CoffeyJoe here with a new story that I've been toying with after reading a few other fics. This one would be updated every Wednesday and would have a less rigid schedule than Two-Faced Traitor. Lemme know what you think of all this and maybe it will be a good story!**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

 _A young boy, no older than 7 or 8, stood in the middle of a Colosseum that might once have been a grand place of fighting, but had now turned into a crumbling ruin that was held together by the wishes of the gods. Literally. The boy was down on his knees, panting and gasping for air as he clutched his chest in pain and shock, his sword and shield and skittered away from him and were now far out of reach. A low growl brought the boy's attention back._

 _Before the young child stood a Beowulf, not a particularly old one nor was it strong but it had one advantage:_

 _It didn't experience fatigue._

 _The boy struggled to get up, if he could he might be able to get it into a headlock where he could break its neck. But, before he could fully get up, the Beowulf lunged forward with a monstrous howl of victory and latched its jaws firmly onto the boys right arm that had been flung out in defense. There was a crunching sound similar to a tin can being crushed as the beast's teeth bore through the training bracer. The boy howled and screamed as the monster lifted his body and proceeded to thrash about wildly, trying to take the boy's arm off. The boy's vision was going black and he knew this was it for him, if only he hadn't been such a disappointment to his father._

 _Suddenly, a spear impaled the large Beowulf and its jaws let go of its captive victim. The creature wobbled slightly and, with a dull moan, fell onto its back where it soon disintegrated into black dust that scattered along the Colosseum floor._

 _The boy raised his eyes, not out of joy or pain or confusion, but out of shame._

 _Before him was another gargantuan creature but this one of a much more human-looking variety. It was a man, but that doesn't quite do it justice. He easily cleared 6 1/2 feet tall and was threaded with lean muscle all over his body, he was wearing Spartan-esque armor complete with a golden cuirass, gold bracers and boots, and a gold skirt that reached down to his knees. Worst of all was the helmet, like his armor, it was Spartan in style with a great red plume like a mohawk running down the middle of it, but what made it so bad were the ice-blue eyes that glowed behind it, glaring down at the boy._

 _"27" he rumbled, "you couldn't even hit the 30 mark, and you suffered an injury that would have costed you your life."_

 _The boy cast his eyes down in shame. "Sorry father."_

 _"Sorry will not help you when I am not there to."_

 _The boy still refused to meet his father's eyes. "For 8 years I have tried to mold you into a perfect warrior, one good enough to call my son, but it seems you inherit too much from you mother."_

 _"I can do no more for you here my son, instead I have decided to release you unto this world to see if you can survive." the great titan commanded. The boy looked up at his father in betrayal, but he found no emotion that could save him in those cold eyes._

 _"Jaune, I hereby exile you from Mt. Brunswick and cast you into the Remnant of my own choosing."_

0-0-0-0

 _Nicholas Arc was many things, a lover, a fighter, a huntsman, a perfect ladies-man, and a father of 7 beautiful daughters, but he couldn't help but feel somewhat empty at the moment. Currently he was meandering through the woods near Mt. Brunswick in Mistral coming home from another heroic adventure of slaying Grimm and fighting evil; it would surely be a story to tell his kids at bedtime tonight. But, for all his love of his family, Nicholas wanted one more thing from this world: a son._

 _A proud son with strength, charm, and wit or maybe a more introverted one with cute, shy tendencies that girls would fawn over. It didn't matter to him, he just wanted a boy he could confide in now that he lived in an ocean of estrogen. Sadly, Joan had taken it out of her poor wife Blanche and she could no longer mother children, yet Nicholas wasn't dejected, after all he still had his girls and his wife. And just because she couldn't bare kids didn't mean she wasn't any less flexible than when she was young hehehehe._

 _Nicholas was torn out of his musings by the sounds of animal snarling and metal cutting flesh, a sound familiar to all hunters as a telltale sign of battle. He rushed towards the sounds, his instincts honed through the years making it easy, and he found himself at the edge of a grove gazing on a sight he couldn't believe._

 _There, in the middle, was a young boy, no older than Joan was, decked out in what looked to be modified bronze armor and a gladius-hoplite shield combo facing off against a Beowulf nearly twice his size. The weirdest about it was..._

 _The boy was winning._

 _The boy lunged forward with a frontal shield bash right into the creatures abdomen, he rushed around the monster's legs making use of his small frame before bringing his sword out in a surgical arc, cutting the beast's Achilles Tendon. The beast dropped to its knee and the boy took it to his advantage, now behind the monster, he jumped up onto its back and, with a mighty roar that scattered nearby birds, the boy brought his sword down through the monster's head._

 _The boy rolled off the beast and stopped to catch his breath, and Nicholas finally snapped out of it and ran to him going into full father-mode._

 _"My god boy! What were you thinking fighting such a creature? Are you hurt? Any cuts or bites? We need to get you some medical attention."_

 _He was so immersed in trying to inspect the boy that he didn't have time to react as he shot up and regarded the elder man with a stoic salute._

 _"Sir! Minor injuries located at the back of the knee, near the solar plexus, and above my right shoulder. Nothing more than cuts and scrapes, I can proceed with the spar!"_

 _The boy said it almost like a robot, as if he said it so often it had been ingrained in his mind to report automatically. Nicholas needed to find out who this kid was so he addressed him in a gentle voice._

 _"Okay son, you're ok. Can you tell me you name?" the boy snapped out his seemingly entranced stupor._

 _"Jaune, sir."_

 _"Okay, my names Nick you can call me that." Nicholas said gently, he didn't want to scare the kid._

 _"Okay Jaune, where are you parents?"_

 _Jaune hesistated slightly before whispering, "m-my mother died when I was too young to remember her, and my dad was the one who left me out here."_

 _Nicholas was floored, who, in goddamn world of Remnant, would throw a child out here on his own?_

 _"What's your father's name son?" he needed to know if this man was still around, because they were going to have some words._

 _"Hector sir."_

 _"Hector?"_

 _"Yes. Hector, the God of War."_

0-0-0-0

 **9 years later...**

Jaune gave a tremendous _hurk_ as his stomach threatened to give way aboard the Bullhead. Infernal goddamn machines is what they were, how anyone could make a profession out of flying one was beyond him. Jaune swallowed hard and rubbed his stomach to try to settle, and, when that didn't work, took a shot of Pepto Bismol like it was fine liquor hoping it would help him.

9 years he had trained for this moment, 9 years his family taught him the skills their ancestors, 9 years since he was thrust into this brutal world. He had been accepted into Beacon, chosen to be one of the lucky few destined to become hunters of the world and fight bad guys. He couldn't be more proud, and his family all shared that sentiment he was going to be a hero!

This time he came too close to expelling his lunch all over some girl's boots, and, judging by her reaction, it would have been the least of his worries if he did. She gained as much distance from him as possible before the Bullhead finally landed and Jaune sped out to throw up in peace, in the trashcan.

"Gah! Thank the mighty gods!" Jaune shouted as he collapsed to the ground. Never again would he take solid ground for granted. Getting up he trudged his way over to what he assumed to Beacon's front entrance. He trudged there, taking his time due to his sickness, but before he could make it he heard a colossal _boom!_ that disrupted the whole courtyard. He rushed over to get a better view and saw a white-clad girl, now thoroughly burnt, standing over a red-clad girl who looked more than a little embarrassed.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I-I'm really sorry!"

Jaune inched his way closer to the festivities, he always was a sucker for some passing drama. Maybe it was something he inherited from his _uncle_... or his _grandpa_... or any of his biological _family_.

Jaune turned his attention back to the argument only to find it was over, with the white-girl stalking away and the mysterious new black one jumping away with great speed and grace. The red-girl sank to the floor and Jaune decided it was time to step in to help, after all, his dad always did tell him that women love a guy who is there for them.

"Hello there! You need some help?" he asked holding out a hand for her.

She smiled and accepted it gratefully, "Ruby Rose. Hey! Aren't you the guy who almost vomited on my sister's shoes?"

Jaune paled. _shit, that had been her sister?_

"Uh, y-yeah that was me! But it was just a little motion sickness I swear! I don't go on many bullheads."

Ruby took the boy in, he certainly looked flashy.

His outfit looked to be a layered bronze cuirass that ended near the top of his chest and was held on by to straps along the shoulders over a red, short-sleeved shirt, a pair of cargo pants that stopped just short his knees, and a pair of bronze bracers that went from his wrist to his elbows and another pair of bronze boots that went to his knees. On his hip he had what appeared to be a gladius in a brown, metal sheath, he also had a pair of black, aviator sunglasses over his eyes that completely concealed them

. Overall, not bad, but his weapon looked a little plain.

She walked with her newfound friend, Jaune, and talked about how awesome their weapons were.

"This is Crescent Rose, she's a scythe but is also a customizable, high-impact sniper rifle." she said whipping it out.

Jaune looked impressed. "Looks awesome Ruby, all I got is my gladius Clamos and my shield Custos" he said unsheathing his sword and, with a small flick of a switch, turning said sheath into a hoplite shield.

"Cool! People just don't appreciate the classics anymore, do they?"

"I know right? You should have seen my family's faces when I said I'd be using them for by huntsman weapons."

They both shared a laugh before Ruby turned to Jaune, "hey, where is the meeting hall again?"

Jaune just looked perplexed behind his sunglasses, "I dunno, I was following you Rubes."

0-0-0-0

Jaune had finally gotten, with Ruby, to the main hall where they were supposed to meet and soon found himself alone as his companion shot off to be with her blonde sister. Jaune shook his head, damn kid had so much energy it was a surprise she wasn't bouncing of the walls with it, Jaune, with nothing better to do, just stood there in boredom.

That was until whitey came back to yell at Ruby and her sister about something or other. It looked like the blonde one was trying to ease the tensions with a declaration of friendship but whitey sank that ship before it sailed.

Jaune didn't catch all of it except when she said "like tall, blonde, and scrawny back there" she said, jerking her thumb towards Jaune.

"What the fuc-"

but they had already returned to their conversation and Jaune could only sigh. He looked around for something to do and his eyes landed on a beautiful redhead a couple feet away.

" _Ladies like confidence I guess_ " Jaune thought to himself. He walked over to the girl and greeted her with a small wave, she in turn gave one back with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, name's Jaune short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it!" he exclaimed, he saw her stifle a smile and mentally cheered.

"Anyways, what's your name?"

She looked surprised at the question itself, "you... don't know who I am?"

"Nah, do you know me or something?"

"N-No, it's just that-"

She was cut off as microphone static cut through the air and everyone turned her attention to a man dressed in green, standing in the middle of the stage.

"I'll keep this brief."

0-0-0-0

 **What do you guys think? Do you like it? Should I keep going? Like I said this would come out, ideally, on every Wednesday alongside Two-Faced Traitor. But this one might be subject to a week late every now and again.**

 **Read and review!**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Back again with another (hopefully) chapter for you guys! So far I've gotten a lot of support for this story and any other critiques would be good. Again, this story won't have a very rigid schedule like my other one so expect not to get one every week, in fact it may not be on Wednesday, maybe before or maybe after idk.**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

The man in green had addressed the gathered students in a very cordial master, he then introduced himself as Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon and the one who is basically in charge of everything. He didn't look half bad, atleast that's what Jaune thought, he sorta had the whole "grandfatherly" look to him.

Not bad at all.

After he had finished his speech, that Jaune mostly tuned out, an older blonde woman, Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch, explained that for tonight the first years would be sleeping in the ball room together, and their initiation would begin early tomorrow.

Jaune was pumped as hell, " _great! No grandstanding, just gettin' straight to the good stuff!_ " he thought to himself. The gathered freshmen began to leave and get their stuff ready for the night, and, as Jaune looked for the redhead he met earlier, he found himself entirely alone.

"Wonderful, couple hours here and I managed to lose two friends." Jaune huffed, "Fuchsia would not be happy."

The rest of the day went normally enough, with teachers directing students into where they needed to be and where to pack up their stuff for tonight. At around 6:30 the freshmen gathered in the cafeteria for their dinner. The cafeteria was a grand place, much like every building in Beacon, with ceilings high enough to fit a several full-grown Ursa standing on eachother's shoulders. He made sure to avoid the dreaded toasters and other electronic appliances, he remembered his first time with that...

0-0-0-0

 _It had been a full 7 months since his new dad had taken him in as their son. And Jaune couldn't feel happier, it was weird not being in a "home" that didn't sic monsters on you every morning, and every night for that matter, where Jaune expected brutality and coldness he found acceptance and warmth. It was foreign to him, and it made his chest ache so bad, but in a good way._

 _He didn't fully get it himself._

 _Nick and Citrina, his mother, left for a day of "sexy-sexy romance time" as his dad put it (which promptly earned him a whap on the head) and left Jaune alone with his sisters for babysitting. His sisters were something else entirely, he never had siblings so he didn't know what to make of them..._

 _Fuchsia Arc: Eldest daughter at 12 and one hell of a hard ass. The family's resident drill sergeant and the law of the land when their parents were away, she wore a fitted three piece suit that was designed to not compromise her battle abilities with a belt full of dust vials around it. She was an expert at dust mixtures and invented brilliant new ways to combine dust into new mixtures, such as the adrenaline dust made from ionized yellow dust and a pinch of fire dust that gave soldiers better stamina, she was slated to join Atlas as the head of Dust Research. She always told it like it was and had a knack for wearing her sunglasses everywhere (where do you think Jaune got it from), she was the de facto oracle of advice for them._

 _Iola Arc: the sweetest girl and second oldest at 19. She was the glue that held the family together, with her funny jokes and contagious smile, she never failed to bring the family together. She had been the first to accept her new brother as a part of her family and as the perfect model for her newest designs. See, Iola was a fashion designer for the Adel Fashion Line inc. and she was the best at making clothing that looked stylish and would work well in a fight. She designed all his sister's clothes and was a notorious closet pervert (damn girl has about a thousand pictures of poor little Jaune in compromising outfits) despite only ever wearing sundresses and sweaters._

 _Sienna Arc: third oldest, book smart, 17, well-learned, and a master negotiator. She mainly handed out the punishments when her siblings got in trouble as she always made them fair and just. She was training to be a well-respected ambassador for Mistral and had already visited Atlas multiple times with her eldest sister. She was well-mannered and patient, and taught Jaune all about the mortal world which he had never been a part of. She wore long sleeved turtlenecks and mom-jeans and was never seen in anything more professional than a strapless dress._

 _Mindy Arc: a major flirt and the most risque of the family, Mindy was her father's worst nightmare with her constant flirting and only being 16. She went through men like copy paper, but still somehow managed to keep an air of proud morals around her. Despite her demeanor, she was sharp as a tack and knew just about everything common core could teach you. She was doing well in school and was often rewarded for her high grades with her favorite black designer dresses that highlighted just about everything on her body. She constantly teased her little brother on everything, but she loved him all the same. Main source of "love advice for Jaune (gods help him)._

 _Tawny Arc: Mindy's twin and polar opposite, Tawny was introverted and shy and rarely went out on social things. One thing she knew was history, mythology, archaeology, and sociology she was a true professor in the making. She loved everything to do with the past, present, and future and would always break out of her shell if you could talk about some dusty old fossils with her. She had been practically exploding with questions when she found out her new brother was a demigod, her questions began rapid-fire but slowly that paced down. Her curiosity, once alight and inflamed, was snuffed out when Jaune began to relive his "life" with his father and what Hector was really like; it got to the point where she had asked him to stop as she was beginning to get sick. She primarily wore her archaeology gear complete with a flashlight-helmet._

 _Cressida Arc: Bold, brash, and a major pain in the ass. Cressida was a huntress that couldn't be matched in hand-to-hand combat and had the fiery spirit to back it up. 5 years ago, at the tender age of 10, she threw herself into human anatomy and unarmed combat technique. Savate, Jeet Kune Do, boxing, MMA, Krav Maga she knew something about every single one. She was unbeatable in the ring until she met her new brother and challenged him to a spar, she lost outright and always guilt trips Jaune by complaining about how her old scars are acting up when she wants something from him. She wears spandex shorts, a compressor tank-top, boxing gloves, and sneakers almost constantly._

 _Joan Arc: At 9 years old, Joan is the shining knight of the Arc family. With big dreams of being a huntress at Haven she has remorselessly pursued her dream by training against her "twin" brother using good old Crocea Mors. She dresses in a hoodie and jeans, but with armored plating over it to protect her just in case of an enemy attack. Big fan of Pyrrha Nikos and, more importantly, Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes._

 _..._

 _Back to it, things had been going nice with the family. Fuchsia had gotten them basically all down in the living room for video games and later a movie if things went well. The older members kept an eye on the younger ones, but they were all having fun. Like a family should. It was all new to Jaune, but, like before, he loved that ache in his chest. The first time he mentioned it the girls sprang into action and tried to dissect him, but, once he explained it, they seemed strangely relieved and... teary eyed?_

 _Anyways, Fuchsia had sent Joan and Jaune into the kitchen to make popcorn and break out the snacks and they both complied. They had been ferrying the coveted snacks over to their siblings but Joan wanted one more thing, reaching into the cabinet she pulled out a small cardboard box labeled: Pumpkin Pete's (Brand-New) Toaster Treats! Apparently, Joan had been waiting for just such an occasion to break them out, like a fine wine._

 _"Ok, I put them into this thingy called a toaster and then set the thing to like 2." she explained to an interested Jaune._

 _"I have to use the bathroom really quick so don't leave, they might burn and then I will have wasted them." she ran off out the door leaving Jaune to stare intensely at the device._

 _Minutes passed and Jaune was about to turn away before it made an ear-splitting metallic roar and shot the small pastries into the air like artillery from hell, or atleast that's how he described it. Jaune promptly jumped into the table with a shriek of "INFERNAL GODDAMNED CREATURE!" and knocked over a few chairs._

 _Fuchsia and Iola rushed in to see what it was about and promptly read the situation within seconds. After Iola had stopped laughing she taught Jaune what a toaster was and Fuchsia had begun to scold him on his mouth._

 _It remains a favorite story amongst the Arcs..._

0-0-0-0

Jaune went to get so food in the line and scoped out the gaggle of newcomers.

There was Ruby and her sister -who was currently putting the former in a vicious headlock- black-haired chick who sat to herself while reading, whitey who seemed to still be in a huff about earlier, Thing 1 and Thing 2 (who seemed to be Ying and Yang for eachother) as the former was currently building herself a fort out of lunch tables and the latter trying to stop her, and finally the redhead she met.

Jaune meandered over to the girl and, when he was within an "appropriate range" as his sisters put it, he called her attention.

"Sup firecracker!" Jaune shouted to her which earned himself a few glances ranging from shock to anger. Jaune himself just shrugged it off, maybe people from Vale enjoyed their peace and quiet.

Said "firecracker" sputtered and tried to say something before he heard the most nails-on-chalkboard voice coming from left field.

"You dolt! How dare you call someone like her a 'firecracker' you twit!" Jaune whirled around to face the voice that had rapidly gotten closer to him. He whipped around to the newcomer so fast they actually flinched. Turns out the "they" was actually a "she": whitey from the courtyard!

"What are you on about?" Jaune asked with irked expression. This only seemed to agitate the girl more and more.

"W-What?! Do you know who you are talking to you boar?!" she screeched. Redhead had gotten closer and was trying to diffuse the situation as best she could.

"L-Look, there's no reason to fight it was just a-"

"I am Weiss Schnee! Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company!"

If she expected Jaune to look impressed, back off, or beg for forgiveness she was about as wrong as you could be. He scanned her up and down behind his sunglasses, she barely was taller than Ruby, and certainly not threatening to him.

"Back off kid it's rude to interrupt a conversation. Now firecracker I never got your name, mine's Jaune A-"

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!" the girl was postively explosive at this point.

Jaune huffed in annoyance, "now now, no need to throw a fit. It's unbecoming of a hunter."

Weiss simply stumbled with her words, getting angrier and angrier, before she stalked off with a murderous glare. Seriously, if looks could kill we'd all be in a lot of trouble right now.

Jaune sighed, "good lord, someone ought to have given that girl a stress ball or something."

The redhead giggled before she gasped, "oh right! You never got my name, it's..."

Pyrrha wasn't sure if she should give him her name, he seemed nice, and he also seemed pretty funny, but what if he recognized her name and treated her differently? Like before?

"It's?"

"It's... Pyrrha, Pyrrha Nikos." she awaited the hammer to drop, but she was met with silence.

"Coolio Julio, like I said the name's Jaune Arc, it'd be nice if we could work together." Jaune said with a warm smile and a pair of finger guns.

"You, seriously don't know who I am?" she asked incredulously.

"Look, am I offending you or something?"

"No no! It's just that, I'm kinda a tournament champion for three years in a row now."

"Cool."

"That's it?"

"Expecting there to be streamers and confetti?"

She was once again thrown off by the boy's sudden brazenness, "N-No! It's just cool to finally have a friend who doesn't look at me as the champion!"

Another heart warming smile radiated off of Jaune, and Pyrrha could swear the heat reached all the way to her core.

0-0-0-0

Ruby sat there, in the ball room surrounded by freshmen, writing a note to her friends back at Signal when her boisterous sister, Yang, crashed down beside her.

"It's like a big slumber party!" she shouted.

"I don't think dad would approve of all the boys."

"I know I do." Yang said with a purr.

She glanced over to the "boys section" that was split from the girl's by yellow tape on the carpet, they were watched over by a fat man with a large mustache and a green-haired man who seemed to shake with energy. A few boys were showing off their muscles or wrestling eachother to try and earn the female's respect as if they were in ancient times.

Suddenly Yang saw a new boy walk by the group across the room and he immediately caught her eye. He recognized him as the boy Ruby was with when she walked into the meeting hall.

"Hey Rubes, ain't that the blonde kid you were with." she said poking Ruby, a small stream of drool coming from her lips.

"Who, Jaune maybe..." she trailed off as she got a good look.

There, dressed in boxer briefs that clung to him like a second skin and a compressor shirt that did much of the same, was Jaune decked out in his classic shades and ever-present bracers. He had a small blanket rolled under his arm as he strode by garnering some hushed glances from both audiences. The "clothing" left little to the imagination and, let's just say, he didn't lack for anything.

To his worth, he wasn't showing off or flexing or challenging someone to a fight. Instead, he just walked by leisurely, taking in the ball room and finding himself a spot where he could sleep. He rolled out his blanket -without a pillow strangely- and dropped himself onto it with a short huff. Despite there being multiple candles lit, people clamoring, and various noises he seemed content to just spread eagle and sleep.

had stopped awhile ago and was trying to reboot while Yang was face-first in her pillow trying to both erase and save the image burned into her mind. The night quieted down with that, Ruby went to go talk to the same black-haired chick she met in the courtyard. They were making a very dry conversation before, after the two sisters had engaged in a "playful" wrestling match, Weiss came and gave them a piece of her mind.

"Can't you see some of us are trying to sleep!" she shouted.

" _ **Oh not you again!**_ " both Yang and Weiss shouted together upon seeing eachother.

Ruby tried to quiet them down as they were both yelling at this point but Weiss was less than impressed.

"Oh now you're on my side!"

"I was always on your-"

"Hey!" a voice shouted amongst the boys. They turned to look and found Jaune sitting up, blackened shades glaring right through them.

"Enough tantrums for today Snowcone. Shut up I'm trying to sleep." he then unceremoniously went back to his spread eagle position from before.

Deciding it was unbecoming of a Schnee to engage with that boar or these trollops, she resigned herself to returning to her sleeping bag and getting some much needed shut eye.

After all. Initiation was tomorrow...

0-0-0-0

 **What do you guys think? I tried to get more dialogue in here than before as I know people like it. If you're wondering about the Arc family's acceptance of demigods and gods, well they seem like an eccentric family. Next chapter we're going to forming the teams and finally seeing Jaune is some good action! It'll be great, and I'm trying to decide whether to split it in two or going with one long one, either way it'll be good I promise.**

 **Btw this isn't a Weiss bashing fic, just thought it would be a funny interaction between them.**

 **Read and Review!**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	3. Chapter 3

**CoffeyJoe here again lovelies! I apologize for the lack of chapter last week, I had an exam that I was preparing for and you know how that song and dance goes. Anyways, I'll be gone for most of this week so no Two-Faced traitor this weekend, but I should be able to get another one of these chapters out next week as well. Sorry for so many delays it's just that my schedule has been hectic but I hope you understand.**

 **Moving on...**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

Jaune sat up groggily and checked the small clock he had laid out beside him: 5:30 AM. A perfect time to get up and get going for the day, so he slowly got up and packed up his things with as much stealth as possible. He rolled up his blanket and picked up his duffle bag and headed for the double doors leading out, before he could make it to them he heard a disrupting snore from beside him-

"Huh, wha- Hey! No sneaking off!" muttered a groggy looking fat man.

"Ugh, it's 5:30, doesn't initiation start at 6:15?" Jaune asked, but the fat man looked puzzled.

"Nonsense my boy! It's only- 5:30 IN THE MORNING!" the man shouted the last part so loud Jaune thought he was going to need hearing aids.

"EVERYONE UP! WE OVERSLEPT GET MOVING TO THE SHOWERS GO GO GO!" the assembled hunters shot up and began to wildly run around screaming and shouting about this and that.

Fat man and his now awake green-haired companion both realized the trouble they had just caused; now the students were up and rioting in the ball room! Both of them tried to get the students to settle down, but not even fatty's booming voice could overcome the clamor of everyone else.

Jaune decided he would try his hand, after all, his sisters always did say he could be quite loud when he wanted. Jaune took a deep, collected breath and then let it loose all at once-

" **ENOUGH! SETTLE DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE TEACHERS!** " if people thought fat man was loud, then this was the equivalant of setting off a cargo crate of dust in a room full of gasoline. The sheer octave of the voice was so loud that the students actually _felt_ the vibrations of his words, not to mention the chandelier and smaller items had rumbled and shook as he shouted. The strength of his voice was so great, that it became a widely known theory that Jaune's semblance had something to do with amplifying his voice.

if only they knew...

The kids straightened up after that, and anyone who had not been, somehow, woken up by the chaos was now certainly wide awake and staring at the thinly-dressed boy. The man in sunglasses simply nodded to the two teachers beside him and let them take it from there.

"R-Right, students! Initiation begins at 6:15 with breakfast, get dressed, get a shower, get your weapons, and get ready-"

"In a calm and orderly fashion!" interjected the green one.

"Yes! Be aware that there are other students who do go here currently, now off with you!" the kids scrambled away, but not nearly in the same chaos as before and Jaune went to go get dressed.

0-0-0-0

"Ooh! Ooh! Ren! Did you hear that guy? He must be like a super special microphone robot or something!" shouted a bubbly orange-haired girl who was currently circling her much more docile friend.

"Nora, I don't think they make robots like that." he retorted incredulously.

"Sure Ren, you just believe what the government wants you to!" Nora said back.

Ren just shook his head as Nora went on and on about the signal she was going to give him, a sloth sound if you were wondering.

"Let's go Nora." he sighed as he made his way to the cafeteria.

0-0-0-0

Ruby was trying to unclog the sound of Jaune's voice from her ears, but to no such luck. Her sister, Yang, was gratefully sucking down her food with increased vigor at the thought of initiation.

"This is gonna be great!" she shouted. "We get to kill shit and we might be getting our new team too!"

Ruby and Yang currently sat alongside the Blake girl from yesterday, although she had contributed nothing, and the hostile Weiss girl that had constantly been attacking them all day.

"Chew with your mouth closed! Didn't your parents teach you manners?" Weiss said in disgust as food spittle flew her way. Yang just gave her a shit-eating grin and turned back to Blake who sat across from her.

"What about you Blake? Ready to get dirty!" Blake choked a little at the word "dirty" but quickly swallowed it (no pun intended) and simply gave a grunt that said little.

"And you Weiss-cream, you ready to go?" Yang said cheekily, leaning in closer to the girl beside her. Weiss promptly inched away in outrage and snarled at the buxom huntress like an animal.

"Let me eat my food in peace, the last thing I need is to be puking this back up in initiation because of you." she said venomously, ignoring the cry of "what's that supposed to mean?" from the girl beside her.

Weiss just huffed and turned back to her cereal, _atleast I have a good chance of winding up with Pyrrha, if I can just find her then we'll be the most powerful team duo this school has ever seen!_

...

Over at a table nearby Nora was once again babbling on to Ren about something involving the signal and how she was going to be giving it to him at the right time. Ren, for his part, just kinda nodded along; far too used to his companion's behavior. Ren almost wanted to cry in joy as he saw another person sit at their table, usually Nora would drive off anyone who got too close to them with her ranting.

Ren looked the kid up and down and found himself interested (not that way pervs!), he was the kid from this morning who shouted for everyone to calm down. Atleast he got Nora up, that was always an uphill battle with her.

"Sup greenbean, gingersnaps." he said, regarding them both with a head nod. Nora pouted slightly at the nickname before perking up.

"Oh! You're the robot! Ren that's him!" she said, shaking the aforementioned boy back and forth by his arm.

"That what?"

"Sorry about her. She gets excitable in the morning." Ren said to the. "My name is Lie Ren, and this is my friend Nora Valkyrie."

The man gestured out his hand and Ren took it in a firm handshake. "Jaune Arc, looks like you two will be quite the package. Here's hoping we get the same team."

Ren nodded, and, when Jaune gestured to the table, Ren nodded for Jaune to take a seat at the table. They talked for a bit, which really meant that Nora babbled on and on about pancakes and sloth signals which they both tuned out.

If it's one thing they had in common: it was that they can tune out the ramblings of people around them.

0-0-0-0

Jaune broke away from Ren and Nora as they entered the locker room and went to go find his locker. One again garbed in his super comfy cargo shirts and red T-shirt, Jaune looked around the room behind his sunglasses and tried to find his number. He was walking down one of the aisles mumbling about the poor organization of this place and how Tawny would throw a fit.

"Let's see, if it's 636 and this 612 then it should be just down this aisle..." Jaune was so wrapped up in finding his stuff that he didn't notice he passed by Ruby and Yang who were talking about something or other.

He even passed both Pyrrha and Weiss, the former trying to get his attention but abruptly failing to do so. Pyrrha looked slightly downtrodden before Weiss turned to her with a wide smile.

"So Pyrrha, have you given any thought to who you want your partner to be? I'm sure everyone would be eager to be teamed up with someone like you!" Pyrrha just smiled back, but on the inside she really did not Weiss as her partner. Not to say Weiss was a bad person, well... I mean, it's just that she also looks at Pyrrha as nothing more than a superstar or a champion.

"i'm not quite sure, I was just planning on letting the chips fall as they may." she replied politely.

Weiss turned in on herself and was mumbling about being the most powerful partner duo in all of Beacon, but before Pyrrha could snap her out of it Jaune brushed between them.

"Sup Pyr and Whitey." he said casually, walking in between them. This was more than enough to snap Weiss out of it and she looked at him with frustration.

"You again? What do you-"

"Not talking to you kiddo."

"Wha- H-How dare yo-"

"So Pyrrha, thinking we gonna get partners today?" Jaune returned to Pyrrha, completely ignoring Weiss's outrage as Pyrrha stifled a giggle.

Weiss shook her head, there was no way this dunce was going to snatch Pyrrha away when he so obviously did not recognize her talents!

"Look Jaune. Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Yeah Pyrrha, want me to introduce you two?"

Weiss bit down a snarl, "She's graduated top of her class at Sanctum!"

"Ok."

"She won the Mistral Tournament three times in a row! A new record!"

"And?"

"She on the front of every Pumpkin Pete's cereal box!"

"Cool, my sis loves that cereal. Guess this is destiny huh firecracker?" Pyrrha tried to hide her blush at the implications of that destiny line and his new nickname for her.

"Hey you boar! What makes you think-"

"Gotta go Pyr, hopefully we see eachother at initiation."

Jaune walked off, sword sheathed and armored strapped nice and tight onto his muscular figure. Pyrrha couldn't help but catch a quick look as Weiss gave an angry apology and stomped off.

0-0-0-0

The new students-to-be had been taken to the cliffside of the Emerald Forest that bordered Vale. Here is where they would prove their skills as huntsman and as teammates, or atleast that was what Ozpin told them.

"Today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." the aged Headmaster told them as he stepped aside to let Glynda speak.

"Now, I'm sure some of you have heard about the assignment of teams. I'm going to dispel these rumors here and now: you are going to be getting your teams today." she said as Ruby let out a quiet "eep". Jaune just smiled, nothing better than getting right into it and getting it over with!

Ozpin finished explaining the test and how they needed to get certain artifacts and how the first person they make eye contact with as their partner. He motioned for everyone to take their positions, as the students began to be flung off the cliffside.

 _Huh, that's new, but not all together bad_ Jaune smirked to himself as he bent his knees in preparation.

3

2

1

 _Thwang!_

Jaune was gliding through the open air, arms abreast as he enjoyed the feeling of the wind on his face and the sun to his back. Doing a mid-air somersault he turned to face ahead and tried to find a good opening amongst the trees and clearings. He noticed what looked to be a grassy knoll that he could make it to and what appeared to be the perfect way to break his fall as well!

This days keeps getting better and better. Jaune smiled to himself but was brought out of it as he felt the wind near him break as an object came at him at a frightening speed, he whirled around just in time to block the object with his bracers and it clanged off them.

Strange, some sort of javelin. An assassination attempt? No, that didn't make any sense. A message maybe? _Watch your back_ or something? Whatever it was he didn't want to leave it behind, he grabbed the javelin in one hand and prepared his descent into the knoll.

0-0-0-0

 **Elsewhere...**

"Milo... Jaune... Oh no!" Pyrrha shouted as she saw the one person who treated her as an equal deflect her attempts at saving him, grab the javelin, and fall earthbound to her West.

Pyrrha jumped down the tree and ran after to where she saw him, "if he can deflect my weapon then he should be able to make it down right?"

Pyrrha was running so fast she didn't notice the buxom figure in front of her until they had collided with a thunderous _Thud!_

0-0-0-0

Ren entered the long grasslands stealthily, he knew that environments like this would be a nesting ground for King Taijitu and other, smaller, Grimm. He needed to be careful and quiet if he wanted to make it through this without injury.

Sneaking through the tall grass Ren kept a watchful eye out for anything that seemed wrong. All was going well until he felt the familiar mental tickle within him; a sure sign he was being watched. And, as if on cue, there was a great slithering sound as the black head of a King Taijitu reared up behind him, ready to pounce.

Ren turned around, Stormflower at the ready, and got into a fighting stance. Should he run? No, this monster would catch up to him, which meant he had to defeat it here and now. That wasn't a major challenge for him, but with the second head and the additional Grimm the battle would bring he might catch an unlucky swipe from a Beowulf's claws.

The King Taijitu reared its head in preparation of a devastating strike, but before it could go through with it it paused. There was a sound, getting ever closer from somewhere not even Ren could identify. It almost sounded like-

"RAAAAAAGHHHH!" the King Taijitu identified the source too late as Jaune came crashing down like a meteorite straight into the unsuspecting creature's skull. The head caved in like paper mache as Jaune found himself snugly pressed into the remains of the beast's head. Ren could only look on with awe, Nora had done some crazy things with Grimm (riding an Ursa among them) but she had never cannonball'd herself straight into one's head.

Jaune dislodged himself from the remains and turned to acknowledge his surroundings. He largely looked unhurt to Ren, if a little soaked in Grimm-fluid and now wielding a red-and-gold Javelin. Jaune finished scanning the field when his eyes locked on Ren's, or atleast he assumed they did because his sunglasses hid his eyes from just about everything, Jaune cracked a wide smile.

"Hey greenbean! Seems to be we're partners!" he stated joyously, coming closer to deliver a firm pat on the back to Ren.

"Ugh, you know that-" the familiar sound of slithering and heaving dirt filled the area as the white head of the King Taijitu reared up over its fallen twin. Jaune unsheathed Clamos from its scabbard and pointed it defiantly at the monster.

"Come on then! Gotta show ol' Ozpin we're made of tough stuff!" he said, shaking his sword like a warrior becoming hyped for an imminent battle. With another battle cry Jaune launched himself at the Grimm, rolling under its initial bite to drag his sword along its scales.

"Ren! Over the top!" Ren understood the command well enough and vaulted over the incoming fangs to land on the head of the creature, delivering quick swipes using his twin blades as Jaune did the same underneath. Ren jumped off the creature as his double backed for a second pass and fired a barrage of bullets into the creatures side; he caught a glimpse of Jaune impaling his sword on the creatures body causing it to howl in agony.

The King Taijitu squirmed out of the pincer maneuver it was caught in to charge at Ren with frightening speed. Jaune had lost his weapon to the creature's body and was now without his gladius, still he ran towards the creature as it knocked Ren some yards away and prepared to deliver the killing blow.

With a burst of speed Jaune intercepted the creature and locked his hands around its fangs, his foot on its lower jaw to prevent it from closing, protecting Ren from being bisected via bite force.

"Ren! How good is you aura control?" Jaune knew if they could deal a critical strike to the creature's internal system then it would fall easily.

"I'm an expert."

"Take this and stick it somehow soft and important!" he said with a grunt as he tore the beast's fangs from its maw and tossed one to a nearby Ren. Locating his target almost immediately, Ren threw the fang like a dagger right into the King Taijitu's eye causing it shake, but Jaune kept his unrelenting hold on the Grimm even as it tried to buck free from the human.

"HAAA!" Ren shouted as he pressed the palm of his hand to the outcropping of fang and sent a pulse of aura through it. There was a ripple that flowed across the white head before it popped like a balloon, spreading black ichor and chunks everywhere.

"Ewwww, grody." Jaune complained as he wiped some King Taijitu off his armor.

He shook his head and looked at his new partner, "So Jaune, off to find the relics then?"

"You got it rocket!"

0-0-0-0

Glynda stood at the cliff face alongside her boss evaluating the students and their initiation.

"Jaune Arc and Lie Ren, an interesting combination but they both seem strong. Although, that Jaune needs to be much less reckless about his attacks." Glynda stated, looking at the scroll in her hands. Ozpin just nodded along, not really paying attention after doing this so many times.

"After that, Pyrrha Nikos and Yang Xiao-Long another interesting combination but a fruitful one none the less. And then there's Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, both promising students but they don't seem to get along very well. And finally..."

Glynda gave a sigh that reeked of sympathy.

"Oh that poor girl." Glynda muttered to herself. Ozpin tossed her a questioning glance as his assistant turned to the scroll's footage.

"Blake Belladonna and Nora Valkyrie."

0-0-0-0

"Damn, that sure was a lot of Beowulves! Who knew they traveled in such large packs!" Jaune commented, scraping the flat of his blade against a tree to wipe off the muck it had accumulated. In one hand he carried his trusty Clamos and in the other, the mysterious javelin that came out of nowhere. He was hesitant to use it due to its unknown capabilities and the fact it could be very precious to someone. Jaune shook the thoughts out of his head, they just needed to find the damn relics and get outta here.

Ren was contemplating his new partner, he seemed nice and certainly was strong...

 _"Ugh Jaune, should you be doing that?" Ren asked nervously, his partner engaging the lone beowulf survivor in hand-to-hand combat._

 _"Pfft, chill jolly green I'll be fine." he said back before going in for a lunge and landing a powerful jab to the creatures abdomen. The Beowulf folded over from the force of it and Jaune used the momentum to flip the creature onto its back. The Beowulf, completely unprepared for this situation, had almost no time to react as the human it had been towering over put it into a crushing headlock and squeezed. Hard. Very hard._

 _"Say uncle! Say it! Ha!" Jaune was enjoying himself immensely as he put more pressure on the beast's neck and head. The Beowulf thrashed under the human's onslaught but couldn't get a grip on anything to heave itself back up, meanwhile Jaune was compressing the monster in another lock._

 _"Ugh Jaune I don't think it can say-" Ren flinched and looked away as he heard a distinct sound like a watermelon being crushed as Jaune let loose another laugh._

 _"Ha! Yeah I know. It's just I like to make em' feel helpless and confused before I kill them y'know? The whole 'hunter becomes the hunted' thing?"_

 _Ren could not say he did._

 _..._

There was no doubt, but he certainly seemed quite... eccentric...

Maybe Nora wouldn't have been so bad after all.

Shaking his heads to clear those thoughts, Jaune and Ren found themselves in a large clearing surrounded by nothing but grass, trees, and...

Ruins! A large stone structure was smack dab in the middle of it all and in it seemed to be what they were after: the relics. The two hunters walked towards the center of the stoneworks before they heard the telltale sound of branches snapping.

Ren and Jaune got into a fighting position but relaxed at the sight of two more huntresses coming to out of the woodwork. It was Pyrrha and Ruby's blonde sister, Yarrow or something?

"Hey guys! See you got here to!" shouted Jaune while he walked over to them. Pyrrha seemed extraordinarily relieved to see Jaune and Yang gave another grin as they got close to eachother.

"How'd it go? You didn't fall and scrape your knee did you?"

Jaune gave a dramatic scoff of offense, "do you consider me that ungraceful?!" he said before they started laughing with eachother. It took a few seconds before they finally calmed down but once they did he noticed Pyrrha looking at something. He followed her line of sight to the javelin across his back and put two and two together.

"This yours Pyr?"

"Wha- Y-Yes! I mean yes!" Pyrrha stammered.

"Oh cool, good thing I didn't leave it huh? But why were you trying to spear me?"

Pyrrha looked horrified. "N-No I-I wasn't trying to 'spear' you! I just thought you didn't know how to get to the... ground... safely."

This time Jaune did look crushed. "Did I really look that bad?"

"N-N-No! I just thought that-" she was cut off as Jaune placed a comforting hand on her head.

"Chill cinnamon ball, I'm just screwing with you."

"Oh."

"Yep, now check this out!" Jaune said as he motioned over to the gathered "relics" that turned out to be chess pieces.

"A symbol perhaps?" Ren inquired to which everyone else just shook their heads. Ozpin seemed like an enigmatic dude, and certainly they weren't going to understand his ways anytime soon.

"Whatever, there seems to be sets of each of these pieces so I guess we should pick the same ones?" Jaune said hesitantly. For all he knew the moment they touched one was the moment it exploded.

"Hmm, wanna go with these horse-looking guys?" asked Yang to the rest.

"The knight? Sure why not." Ren replied.

They each picked up a golden horse and tucked them away into their respective pockets before facing eachother.

"Ugh, if we haven't formally met I'm Jaune, this is Ren." Jaune said as he nodded to his partner.

"Yang, and of course this Pyrrha."

"Okie-dokie, now let's get the hell out of here-"

A rumble shook the earth as the sounds of something _big_ came their way from the forest within. There was a loud howl that sounded like it had come from a beast straight out of Tartarus and it was getting closer. Fast. The assembled hunters got ready, but then they heard something strange: laughing. Ren paled slightly and his partner caught the look.

"What is it? More Grimm? Something else?"

"No... It's-"

"Renny!"

0-0-0-0

 **Hey yall, I'm just pumping these chapters out today! And you can expect one sometime this week if I can get squared away quick enough. Hope you enjoyed it and the next part of initiation will be the focus of the next chapter. I intend to settle the teams but I'm sure you can already guess who's going to be with who.**

 **Read and Review, you know I love it.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok finally back from my trip and it went great! So, as I promised, the next chapter of this fanfic is coming out today! Again sorry for all delays and I thank you guys for your patience. Honestly, writing all this down has been pretty cool and I can see why people like it. I owe you guys for all your support for this story.**

 **Now go ahead and enjoy!**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

The earth shook as the sky split asunder signalling the end times have come. Children weep, women scream, and the most well-trained hunters shiver in their boots at the mere sight of this beast. Lasses grab your lads, and fellas, grab your gnads! It is her, the bringer of destruction, the annihilator of peace, and the devourer of all things pancake it's-

"NORA!" Ren shouted as the familiar redheaded girl exploded from the treeline with whimsical glee, a very dogged (no pun intended) looking Blake behind her, and continued to her old friend.

"Renny! You didn't come find me in the forest!" she pouted to the green ninja. Ren just shook his head at Nora's usual antics as his partner went to go greet the black haired girl who was looking quite worn out.

"Hey pal you alright? You look like you're about to keel over." he said gently reaching out to the panting girl who just shook her head.

"We're being chased by a death stalker!" she shouted in between breathes.

"Wait what-"

"Oh yeah I forgot!"

"Nora!"

It was at this moment that the same screech could be heard from within the forest, now much much closer, as the assembled hunters gathered up their weapons and prepared for battle.

"I suppose things couldn't get much worse right?" Yang asked hesitantly.

Jaune did not have time to knock on some wood as the ear-splitting caw of a Nevermore seemed to erupt from nowhere. Jaune whirled around to see Ruby speeding towards them from the sky at Mach 7. The whole crew craned their necks in perfect unity to track the red-themed girl's fall into a large oak tree not too far away from the rest of the relics.

"Goddammit Yang" Jaune muttered to himself. Yang rushed over to pull her fallen sister out of the tree and, once they were now safely on solid ground, the ever growing group of badass Grimm hunters regarded eachother for a second time.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight- I feel like we're missing someone." Jaune counted under his breath, Ruby gave him a sheepish smile and looked down at her feet.

"About that-" the same shrieking caw erupted from just above them as they all turned to look at what was happening now: Weiss, dangling on the Nevermore's claw, was shouting something near incomprehensible to the ones on the ground.

"Hey do you think she'll-" Jaune began only to be cut off.

"Fall? Yes." Ren replied.

As if on cue Weiss let go of the large Grimm and fell fast towards the earth.

"Hey Ruby, if you wanted to score some brownie points with Weiss now would be the time." Jaune said to the younger huntress who immediately sped off using her semblance to save her partner. Ruby "caught" her just in time, using her body as a cushion and completely denting the forest floor with the following impact.

The Nevermore circled overhead like a shark sizing up its prey as the aforementioned Death Stalker finally made its appearance out of the canopy and into the clearing. Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose _One moment, that's all I ever ask for_ he thought bitterly to himself.

"Well, the gang's all here! Now we can die together." Yang said with fake cheer.

Ruby just gave her a cocky smirk, "not if I can do anything about it." she made to rush off towards the Death Stalker in a heroic feat of strength but found her hood snagged by Jaune's firm grip.

"Not so fast kiddo, you try and take that thing on and it'll kill you." he chastised her causing Ruby to look down at the ground in shame.

"Ren, any ideas?" he asked turning around.

Ren contemplated their options (there certainly weren't a lot), "there are more ruins just outside of here, we can use them to our advantage instead of being stuck out in the open here." he said finally.

"Good. You heard him folks, make like a tree and split!" Yang had to hold herself back mentally so she wouldn't yell at him for getting the phrase wrong. The 8 hunters made a beeline for the larger ruins, dodging and blocking Nevermore feathers and just outrunning the menacing stinger of the Death Stalker.

0-0-0-0

 **15 minutes later...**

"Nora distract it!" Ren yelled, ducking under a volley of feathers as his friend fired off rounds of grenades at the large Nevermore. She was so caught up in killing the Nevermore that she didn't notice the Death Stalker's stinger until it was too late.

Jaune jumped in between them both and, using Custos to block the attack, he protected Nora. The force of the blow drove his heels into the dirt but he was saved as both Blake and Ren jumped the beast delivering an x-shaped blow across its carapace.

The hunters continued to run as a group and onto the bridge connecting the cliff they had found themselves upon to a larger stone structure that had seen better days. The Nevermore and the Death Stalker were closing in and they needed a plan fast.

The Nevermore flew right into the bridge they were on, shattering it and splitting the hunters up with Ren, Pyrrha, and Yang on one side and Jaune, Weiss, Ruby, Blake, and Nora on the other.

Jaune cursed under his breath, "Nora! The Nevermore's feathers are only good when they're higher than the target, take your team and go up the tower to give us covering fire!"

"And you?" Ruby asked with concern.

"We'll handle the Death Stalker. Now go!" he finished, making a mighty leap across the chasm to help his team. His comrades weren't having much luck with fighting the large beast as its hide was like that of armor. Jaune whipped his shield like a frisbee towards its tail to knock off the angle it was at and saving Yang from a brutal blow.

"The others are handling the Nevermore, but we gotta clear this way." Jaune communicated to the three others on the bridge. Ren bit his lip slightly, this Death Stalker was quite old and that meant it had intelligence, strategy, and skill which was something that created a very dangerous creature.

"Ren! Any ideas on how to kill this damn thing? The best we have is Yang but her shells don't penetrate the armor." Jaune shouted over the latter's attempt at breaking through the bone shield of the beast.

Ren's mind was going into overtime when he suddenly got an idea based off one of Nora's antics. "Jaune! Think you're strong enough to break up this stone when I give the signal?"

Jaune just gave a smile that seemed almost feral in the early light; he could catch Ren's drift and was more than happy to go along. Ren nodded to him, seeing as he got the plan before regarding Pyrrha and Yang.

"Yang! Try to blow out the support pillars underneath the monster! Pyrrha, you and I need to keep it distracted, but get ready to jump on my mark." he said as Yang complied, unleashing hell upon the poor stone supports. Ren and Pyrrha fired upon the creature, giving the other two ample time to prepare; Jaune sheathed his sword into Custos before folding it back into the metal sheath and bending his knees in preparation.

Yang had chiseled away at most of the pillars, so if the Grimm shifted its weight too much it would prematurely collapse; they needed to act fast.

"You're good!" Yang shouted as she dived under the Death Stalker's tail and past it.

"JAUNE NOW!" Ren shouted as Pyrrha took that for the signal and jumped after her blonde partner as Ren followed.

"HEEEYAAAAGH!" Jaune roared, similar to what happened when he shouted during the morning, as he jumped over the beast and brought his sword in its sheath down on the creature's head with enough force to buckle the stone pillars.

The remains of the bridged folded like cheap cardboard as the Death Stalker shrieked in surprise and anger. Jaune wasted no time in springboarding off the creature's glowing stinger to get to the last part of the bridge. But, despite his impressive jump, he had been too slow and he would miss the ledge by a mere couple of feet; his momentum slowed as gravity began to drag him down into the pit with the still shrieking monster.

Ren's hand shout out to grip his partner's before he could fall down.

"Holding hands already? What's next, dinner?" Jaune joked as Ren rolled his eyes and dragged him upward. Jaune dusted himself off and looked to his newfound colleagues.

"Anyone hurt too bad?" he asked as the other confirmed their -relative- health.

"Wait," Pyrrha said. "What about the Nevermore?"

The four hunters turned around and saw said beast crashing into the mountain side, wings aflame with pink smoke and large cuts all over.

"Oh" they said in unison.

0-0-0-0

"-And Sky Lark. You are now Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester." Ozpin finished as the four team members beamed proudly at the gathered applause.

"Lie Ren, Jaune Arc, Yang Xiao-Long, and Pyrrha Nikos; you retrieved the golden knight pieces. From this day forward you shall be known as Team RAYN (Rain), led by Lie Ren." he announced to gathered applause. Jaune patted his partner on his back as the rest of the team smiled at him.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Nora Valkyrie; you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forward you will be known as Team RVBS (Ribes) led by Ruby Rose."

"Good job little sis!" Yang shouted from the crowd to thunderous applause.

Jaune shot a look to Pyrrha as he saw the thinly veiled outrage on Weiss's face at not being named team leader. And with that, the ceremony came to an end and the teams retired to their new dorms to set up their stuff.

0-0-0-0

 **Later that night...**

"Congrats jolly green! Nora upset she didn't get on your team?" Jaune asked as they unpacked their stuff. Jaune packed very little, nothing more than some hygiene essentials, a pillow, clothing, some money, and a digital alarm clock; there seemed to be little to no personal effects beside his scroll.

"She was a little upset, but she promised to make it up by spending twice the amount of time with me." Ren shivered at the thought as Jaune just chuckled.

"And you Yang? Excited about Rubes's promotion?" to which Yang just smiled proudly.

"You bet! My little sis, all grown up and leading a team!" Pyrrha giggled at her partner's sisterly affection.

"Well alrighty then! Looks like we're the new, and kickass, Team RAYN! I promise to do everything in my power to keep you guys safe!"

"Hell yeah!"

"Me too."

"And I as well."

Team RAYN went to sleep that night with pleasant thoughts and a preparedness for whatever tomorrow would bring for them. 45 minutes later and Jaune was the only one still awake, thinking about how weird its been since that night 9 years ago and everything since then.

0-0-0-0

 _"Ok Jaune, now Beacon will be a whole new ball game for you, so pay attention and behave properly." Fuchsia reminded him, fixing his armor slightly and brushing off whatever dust or lint she could find. Fuchsia would be leaving the day after to take her place as head of Dust Research in Atlas and she wanted to say goodbye to her baby brother before then._

 _"If you ever need help, you can call me or any one of us and we'll pick up, I promise." she said as she stroked his blonde hair._

 _"I know sis, I know." he smiled back, she returned it and gave him a hug._

 _"I'll miss you brat." she said before walking off to finish packing._

 _"Sup Jauney, how ya feeling?" Cressida asked, walking up alongside Iola who had returned from he work in Mistral to say goodbye to her brother._

 _"Feeling good, can't wait to be a full fledged hunter!" he said with an epic fist bump to his older sister. He chuckled to herself as Iola gave a content sigh of resignation; they really would never change would they?_

 _"Like Fuchsia said, we'll always be on call for you sweetie and should you feel like it's too much you can always come home." Iola said soothingly._

 _"Yeah! The village militia could use a guy like you!" Cressida added on._

 _"Thanks guys, but this is what I need to do. Maybe if I can get strong enough he'll-"_

 _"Stop thinking about that Jaune" Iola said, smile gone from her face._

 _"Yeah, that asshole can sit up on his mountain until the end of time. You don't need him right, you have us."_

 _"Yeah. You're right sis, love you guys." Jaune said, a small smile cracking his face. They both said their goodbyes as Tawny, Joan, and Mindy walked up to him to say their goodbyes as well._

 _"Kay little bro listen up." Mindy started with her usual attitude, "if you get any girls for yourself the minimum time for 2nd base is 1 and a half weeks, 3rd base is about a month, and 4th base is about two months."_

 _"What is 4th base?" Jaune asked hesitantly._

 _"Ana-"_

 _"We'll miss you Jaune." Tawny interrupted, she too was leaving in about a week for another dig site. Apparently they found some old ruins and they couldn't wait to see what was in them._

 _"Yeah little bro! We'll miss you so much! Haven won't be as much fun without you!" Joan said, blubbering like a baby on Jaune's chestplate. Jaune just stroked her hair and reminded her that they could see eachother during the Vytal Tournament._

 _"Be careful squirt."_

 _"Love you Jaune, be careful."_

 _"I'm gonna miss you so much!"_

 _Jaune just chuckled and picked up his bags as he made his way to the Bullhead. Sienna and his parents were busy with hunting business and dust negotiations respectively and they couldn't make it. But they did send a scroll call to make sure he was ok._

 _Jaune sucked in his breath and boarded the large flying machine._

 _He was gonna be a hunter, a hero, and a man to be looked up to._

 _He was going to show him what he never saw._

0-0-0-0

 **Yep, a good chapter. Teams got settled, a little flashback, initiations over and that means that we're finally going to be picking things up! Can't wait for this to happen as I got plenty of ideas.**

 **Read and review like always folks, I'm taking a nap.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys! Another day another chapter! Hope you guys enjoy it as I'm trying to flesh out the characters a bit more. Anyways, enjoy the chapter you guys!**

 **Remember to read and review.**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

 _An 8 year old Jaune struggled to get up again after being knocked down for what must have been the 11th or 12th time. His leather training armor was ripped and torn in various places around his body to the point where it would provide him no defense. He was fighting in the middle of the Colosseum against an older faunus, a puma by the looks of it, who was currently bearing down at him, claws raised to slice him to ribbons._

 _This was one of his father's many training exercises. He would kidnap wayward travelers and wandering mercenaries and bring them to Mt. Brunswick to be used as training dummies for his son. They were always told that if they won, they'd be rewarded handsomely and given their freedom; it was enough for many a man, human or faunus, to try and murder an 8 year old. These "training dummies" had been Jaune's first live kills, starting when he was 6, he'd seen everything from a 14 year old squirrel faunus who begged and pleaded for her freedom -before Jaune killed her via his sword- to a 50 year old mercenary who had attempted to kill Jaune before his father finished his explanation to him. Large or small, young or old, it mattered naught and Jaune slew them all viciously and without mercy._

 _Today's contender was some ragged faunus boy who looked like he was used to fighting given his experience in using his claws and what must have been some kind of combat training. The puma faunus roared as he lunged for the boys next, razor claws being more than qualified to slice through flesh, but Jaune rolled out of the way as the knife-hand came down. The faunus was momentarily distracted by the boy's agility, and Jaune took that opportunity to jab his dagger into the boy's arm deep enough to scrape the bone; his opponent howled in agony as his guard broke as well as his concentration. Jaune then jumped for the boy and locked a strong arm around his neck, using his other arm for leverage, Jaune squeezed tighter down onto his choking opponent's neck before an audible *snap was heard._

 _The faunus stopped his struggle as Jaune dropped his body to the floor unceremoniously. Jaune swallowed a wince as he heard the loud thumping of his father's boots echo across the Colosseum floor. Hector bore down on Jaune, dwarfing the young boy, as he fixed his eyes straight into Jaune's head making his son's stare tremble._

 _"Report." he rumbled._

 _"S-Sir! Minor contusions to the lower abdomen as well as what appears to be a hairline fracture on the left femur. My aura is currently healing these minor injuries and I can continue onward." Jaune said with as much confidence and quickness he could muster in the face of his father._

 _Hector's eyes did not give anything away as he sat in silence. The arena floor had gone dead quiet as the only other individual was now long dead, Jaune gaze held but he could feel it cracking under his father's scrutinizing glare before he finally cast his eyes down._

 _"Disappointing, I saw atleast 5 strikes that could have been blocked, 2 of which would have given you an easy opportunity to slay your enemy." Hector said, as he turned away from his son. "Return to the quarters and have the servants fix you of your scrapes and broken pieces, then return here for midnight training."_

 _Although Jaune knew better, he couldn't resist questioning his father as he began to walk away. "Sir, I don't have any broken-"_

 _Jaune was cut off as his father's rock-hard fist connected with his nose, shattering it._

0-0-0-0

Jaune awoke with a start, it had been a very long time since he had had one of his training dreams. And, of course, that meant this day was destined to get off to a rocky start; he checked his scroll to see that it was 6:42 in the morning. With a sigh, Jaune arose from his bed with as much stealth as he could, careful not to wake his teammates even as Yang snored loudly, atleast he wasn't waking up at 3 in the morning like he used to. Jaune smiled as he remembered Cressida tying him to his bed for weeks on end to force him to sleep in. Her "therapy" didn't quite work the way she wanted to, but now atleast Jaune could get some much more needed sleep and not always run on fumes, that would come in helpful now that he was doing homework everyday.

Jaune slipped into the shower, peeling off his pajamas and bringing in his newly pressed school uniform: a brown blazer, white dress shirt, black slacks, and red tie. He snorted at another memory of Iola and Sienna forcing him into dress clothes that he absolutely hated; for one, they weren't flexible enough to be considered good fighting attire in case of an assassination attempt! Second, they were downright uncomfortable; with their strangling ties and clunky dress shoes he was a dead man walking if he had to fight in them!

Shaking his head, Jaune stepped into his hot shower and let the night's anxieties melt away along with the water. He was brought out of his zen-like state of tranquility as the sound of Yang pounding on the door shattered his thoughts.

"Hey! You already woke me up this early, so you better not use all the hot water!" she barked, probably waking up Ren and Pyrrha as well as team RVBS and the rest of the dorm.

Jaune sighed, _so much for a peaceful morning_.

0-0-0-0

Jaune was dressed in his new uniform, waiting against the wall for his teammates to finish getting ready. The clock showed 8:12 at this point and Jaune had spent the time trying to get his new tie on (damn things were evil, he'd prove it) and then having Ren help him with it. Pyrrha had just finished putting her blazer on when they heard a crash from the dorm across their: Team RVBS.

Ren rolled his eyes as he heard the maniacal giggle of his childhood friend, Nora, and the sounds of argument coming from their room. Jaune walked across the hall as the clamor only seemed to get worse and knocked on their door, but it seems, in their fighting or whatever, they did not hear anything. Jaune rolled his eyes and opened the door to tell them to knock it off.

"Guys come on, classes began at-" he stopped as he looked at the scene before him; their beds had been arranged in some sort of makeshift carnival ride from hell, with ropes and books acting as supports for two of the beds as they hanged precariously over the others. But what really got him though, was the fact Nora currently had Weiss on the floor without a nightgown on in a headlock while she herself was clad only in a grey shirt with the word "boop" on it and some underwear that he did not linger on. Ruby and Blake were trying to unravel the two, but the whole teamed stopped to the look at Jaune as he just stood their like a deer in the headlights.

"I ugh, I-I mean I..." he stammered before he resolved to just turn around and shut the door while shouting "class in 40 guys".

Jaune returned back to his team's dorm, brain sufficiently fried as Pyrrha turned to see her friend's dazed expression.

"Jaune, are you ok? What happened?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Wha- Oh yeah! Nothing, I'm fine!" he said, shaking his head.

Ren just came up to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, she does this a lot."

Jaune could only now feel the agony this boy had gone through.

"Let's just get ready for close huh guys?"

0-0-0-0

"Monsters, demons, creatures of the night! Yes, the Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey!" the portly Professor Port exclaimed as his class began, about 2 minutes in and Jaune could feel the machismo and ego radiating of this man. It was going to be a fun class.

Jaune sat there, head supported by his hand as he sat next to Ren, Yang, and Pyrrha across from Team RVBS as class dragged on into what seemed like story hour. Ruby looked like she hadn't gotten enough sleep last night and seemed in danger of passing out again, Nora was, well Nora... Blake stealthily read her book, and Weiss seemed caught between a look of flustered embarrassment -shooting glares at Jaune- and indignant outrage at her leader's lack of leader-ness.

Jaune shook his head slightly, behind his glasses they had no idea he had been watching their subtle antics the entire class. The sparks of anger, that naivety, and the immaturity of two team members was enough to create a powder keg ready to explode in the form of one Weiss Schnee. Jaune watched as Weiss became outright livid as Ruby drew idiotic doodles much to Nora's amusement and picked her nose, as Port finished up his story Weiss looked ready to explode after he named the qualities of a true huntsman.

He found it no surprise that she immediately volunteered for a practice spar as Professor Port asked for a volunteer to fight against a captive Grimm. Jaune sighed as Yang glared at the back of Weiss's head, apparently following the white-themed girls glares at her sister, and Pyrrha looked helplessly between them then at Jaune for some kind of advice.

Jaune just shook his head as Weiss returned from getting her gear.

0-0-0-0

Weiss stood in the middle of the room, facing the snarling and bucking cage that held what was probably a boarbatusk. She got into her posture as Port suddenly knocked the lock of the cage and the boarbatusk came barreling out wildly. Weiss dodged the initial charge and shot forward using her rapier to try and spear the creature's armored head, Jaune sighed again as it harmlessly bounced of the bone plating and the Grimm caught the weapon in its tusks.

With a squeal it threw the rapier away from Weiss much to her dismay, Port commented on her next move now that she had no weapon but she chose to ignore it. The boar Grimm charged again in a reckless dash that Weiss easily rolled away from as the beast's head connected with the resistant wood desks. Team RVBS continued to shout words of encouragement, most notably Ruby, but Weiss promptly ignored it.

Weiss ran to grab her rapier and turned to face the Grimm as it began to spin vertically turning it into a bony, spiked wheel of death. Ruby had fought these before and knew the perfect advice for her partner!

"Weiss, go for the belly! There's no armor there." she shouted encouragingly, expecting a thanks from her friend.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Weiss shouted back angrily, Ruby flinched and fell silent and Jaune covered Yang's mouth from shouting some obscene insult at the heiress. Despite her words, Weiss produced two of her glyphs to throw the boarbatusk off balance and leave it's belly wide open to be attacked, she then used a second glyph as a springboard to impale the creature easily. The Grimm slowly faded away as Port praised her ability.

"Bravo! Bravo! It seems we are in the presence of a true huntress!" he commended cheerily as Weiss gasped for air. Port released the class and Jaune watched as Ruby went after Weiss, most likely to ask what was wrong.

"Good lord, that team needs some serious counseling." Jaune muttered as Ren nodded in agreement.

"I swear, if she makes Ruby cry the Schnee's will need to fine a new heiress." Yang snarled as Pyrrha held her back slightly from following them. Jaune looked over to his team, "go on ahead guys, I'm gonna talk to Ruby" he said before splitting off from them.

...

Jaune walked through the corridors to catch the tail end of an argument Ruby and Weiss were having.

"-I thought you believed in acting as a team?" Ruby's soft, childlike voice echoed in the hallway.

"Not a team led by you!" Weiss huffed before stomping off to somewhere else. Jaune grit his teeth at that, _Man, what a massive bitch!_

Jaune walked up to a dejected Ruby and cleared his throat. "So, guessing the teamwork is working out?" he asked solemnly to which Ruby just shook her head.

"Yeah, she thinks I'm just some child and that I'm not good as a leader! And what if she right?"

"I'd say that's unfair." Jaune answered, looking at Ruby with a gentle expression (the sunglasses kind of made it hard). "It's only been like, a day right? And we haven't really had any opportunities to show our best qualities, even in the forest! Like Ren, he came up with a plan sure but that doesn't mean I know if he'll be a good leader right?"

Ruby took a second to think about that before nodding, "But, aren't first impressions important?"

"Yes they are Rubes" Jaune nodded. "And in that aspect you could have done better, but first impressions -contrary to popular belief- aren't everything; especially when it comes to working on a team of people that may save your life one day."

Ruby turned to look at him for the first time since they started talking, "I guess you're right, but what if I'm not a good leader? What if I do something that would get one of our teammates hurt because I'm inexperienced?"

"Then that's why we have a school full of professional hunters that are paid to teach us. You forget, the most important part of learning is finding your weakness and then building off of it to become something greater." Jaune smiled as he patted Ruby's head, "we have four years to become hunters kid, so make sure you use them to their fullest."

With that, Jaune walked off to Professor Oobleck's history class, leaving Ruby behind to think on it. Passing my a corridor he stopped, feeling a presence like that of initiation; Jaune turned to acknowledge Ozpin who walked up to him.

"Headmaster, did you need something?" Jaune asked cordially, something about the headmaster seemed _off._ Not bad, but odd; like he was more than he seemed or acted to be, and that was enough to set Jaune on edge.

"I suppose, Mr. Arc I caught your conversation with Ms. Rose a few moments ago and, in fact, I was about to say something similar to her." the Headmaster smiled warmly at his student, "I admit Mr. Arc, I did not expect to find such a mature frame of mind in a first year no offense."

"None taken, if there's one thing I know it's that learning your weakness can be your greatest strength." he said, quoting something his dad had told him (although it was more about getting girls than fighting or learning).

Ozpin smiled and nodded his head, "well I won't keep you any longer, I have a feeling we found a promising young huntsman with your Mr. Arc."

Jaune thanked him and walked away, _who knew someone like him would be here_ Ozpin thought to himself as he sipped more coffee.

0-0-0-0

 _By Oum above, can this place just not have a normal class?_ Jaune lamented to himself as he sat in Oobleck's hellish class. The man talked like he was on crack! Someone's been slipping something other than an extra bit of sugar in this guy's drink, but Jaune tried to pay attention anyway as he talked about the class syllabus. Jaune looked over the packet before shooting his hand out to grab something that was flung at him. Jaune looked at it to see a paper airplane, he scanned the room behind his glasses to see a snickering redhead man who sat along with his gang of lackeys. Jaune stared him dead in the eyes and crushed the paper before flicking it back at him with enough to speed to keep it hidden from the Professor. It hid the thug right in his ugly, chuckling face causing him to stand up abruptly.

"Mr. Winchester; a question perhaps?" Oobleck asked as he slid his glasses down to regard him. Winchester grumbled something before sitting back down to glare daggers at Jaune.

Ren tapped Jaune's leg slightly, but Jaune didn't turn to look. "I know, I'll stay out of trouble." he whispered to his team leader who just nodded and returned to the lesson. The teacher droned on for another 45 minutes before he dismissed the class telling them that they'd start tomorrow on the Faunus War.

As kids left class Jaune felt that same thug, Winchester, come barreling towards him and Jaune braced himself. The impact came soon after but Jaune was a whole lot stronger than he was, so in the end Winchester stumbled around him before finally regaining his balance.

Jaune looked at him with an impassive face. "Sorry, did I block your way?"

Winchester just grit his teeth, "combat class is tomorrow, hopefully we end up in the ring huh blondie?" he growled before stomping away, goons in tow.

"Yeah, I sure hope so." Jaune smiled, "I wonder if broken bones are allowed?"

0-0-0-0

 **Hey, another chapter done! I promised one for Friday right guys? It feels good to get back to this character, I love it so much. Next chapter is gonna be on Jaunedice so I know you guys with love that.**

 **Until then.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	6. Chapter 6

**Not much of an author's note this week. I plan on continuing Arc's Mad World sometime this weekend but projects are starting to pile up more and more. Enjoy this chapter!**

 **Read and Review!**

" _Hello_ "-Thinking

"Hello"-Talking

" **Hello** "-Inner Monologue

0-0-0-0

Jaune woke up the next morning in a much better mood. He had slept peacefully and without another one of his training dreams, and he even slept in more than he usually did with the clock reading 7:32 AM. He could hear Yang finishing up in their bathroom and, as he turned to regard the rest of the room, he saw his partner, Ren, fixing his blazer in their closet's mirror as Pyrrha finished up some of her makeup.

"Morning guys, but why didn't you wake me up sooner?" Jaune asked, it wasn't that he was mad but he and his partner were both early risers so he expected for Ren to wake him up earlier.

Ren just looked at him and smiled. "Pyrrha saw you sleeping soundly in your bed, and she said that we should let you rest in for a bit."

Pyrrha stopped putting on her makeup and she wheeled around and began to sputter, embarrassed flush on her face as she tried to stammer out some excuse. Jaune lazily waved a hand, signaling that it was alright, and got up to lay out his clothes as he waited for his shower.

He approached the door and was decided some small talk was in order. "So glorious leader," Ren grimaced at that nickname, "how are we enjoying Beaco- by Oum Yang!" Jaune was interrupted as Yang swung open the door, narrowly missing Jaune's face as she came out of the shower.

"Sorry Jauney-boy, but you should know not to stand so close when a lady is leaving her shower." Yang teased as she flicked her still wet hair behind her. Jaune rolled his eyes and prepared to take his shower. He turned up the heat and, after a minute or so, he stuck his hand and narrowed his eyes as he felt barely lukewarm water meet his hand.

"Hypocrite!" he shouted at Yang as he heard her giggle.

"Sorry Jauney! That rule only applies to the rest of you!"

Jaune shook his head with annoyance, stripped, and stepped into his rapidly going-cold shower and tried to breathe out his minor annoyances. Another fine morning at Beacon; good lord, two days in and he already made an enemy, got duped by his teammate, and found how soul-crushingly boring a single class could be. Maybe breakfast would be better...

0-0-0-0

Jaune twirled his fork as he watched Team RVBS fight over something or other. Really they were kinda transparent, he had already tuned out their yelling but he could gather what had happened just by what they were doing and Nora's eager hand motions.

Something along the lines of Ruby almost being caught for nicking cookies from the kitchen late last night. Needless to say, Weiss would not be partner with a cookie-nicking thief; it was below a Schnee! Jaune let out a chuckle as Nora popped up in between them with a shout of happiness, unfortunately, said chuckle had caught the attention of one irate heiress.

"Something funny Arc?" she scoffed at him, Jaune cocked an eyebrow at her. He knew this game, she couldn't win her argument so she was taking it out on someone else, a lesson he had gleamed from his "twin" sister.

"Yeah, your team seems quite queer." Ruby sputtered at that and she grew bright red.

"I'll have you know that I'm perfectly happy liking- I mean, being friends with boys." she said as Yang gave her a dangerous glare from across the table. Jaune slowly turned his head at Yang who had the decency to atleast look sheepish.

"This is my problem! My team acts so immature!" Weiss shouted which made Ruby, Nora, and even Blake look down slightly. Jaune pinched the bridge of his nose, another thing he was used to: infighting and temper tantrums.

"Have you considered not yelling at them and making what you want clearer in a more mature fashion?" Jaune asked with measured calm, however he couldn't help but inject a small dose of snide into his comment earning Weiss's ire once again.

"Shut it Arc! You have no idea what it is like with these buffoons!" Yang growled but Pyrrha put a comforting hand on her shoulder and decided to speak up herself-

"Now now, it seems like you and your team could use some minor counseling. Why not go talk to one of the teachers, or either Jaune or I would be more than happy to help mediate some of your concerns.

Weiss scoffed. "As if, atleast you could do something since they actually respect you. But I doubt Arc has the capacity to deal with these people." she huffed in indignation, Jaune began to notice the telltale signs of hurt on Ruby's face and the veiled ones on Nora's. He knew he needed to put an end to this quickly-

"Look, I think we all need to calm down. We have a long day ahead of us and we shouldn't be fighting so-"

"Shut it Arc, you have no idea what's going on." Weiss snarled at him.

"Weiss! There's no need to-" Ruby began but was once again cut off by her partner.

"No! I will not be lectured by this cretin!" Pyrrha began to look offended at the comment. "Just because he's lived in a bad element and been taught some skills on fighting doesn't mean he can boss me around."

"Bad element? Weiss he wasn't trying to insult you." Pyrrha said carefully as Jaune nodded with ever thinning patience. That jab at his home life had taken this argument up a notch but he was willing to let it slide.

"Oh I'm sure." Weiss's team didn't try to stop her as she became more outraged and drew the attention of some nearby students. "Just like he didn't mean to insult me before initiation, or how he didn't mean to peep on us yesterday! Face it Pyrrha, this thug is just another bully because one of his parents didn't teach him anything."

Even Ren looked shocked at that, Pyrrha began to speak up again before something loud slammed into the table. The leader of Team RAYN looked over at his partner to see his fist indented into the table, the sunglasses making it hard to fully read his face but, if the vicious scowl was anything to go by, Jaune didn't seem too happy. He stood up to the now hesitant looking Weiss as she tried to put on a brave face and stand up straight, but her efforts were diminished by the fact that the height and width difference of Jaune and Weiss were becoming very obvious.

"Jaune, I don't think that Weiss-"

"Fuck off Schnee." Jaune growled which made Ruby and Pyrrha gasp. Weiss looked taken aback as she leaned backwards slightly, Jaune's eyes roamed the table shortly before he huffed and threw his uneaten food into the garbage bin.

"Whatever, I feel bad for Ruby to have to deal with a bitch like you. I'm going to class." he finally muttered as he walked away, with a sigh Ren made an excuse to go after him and left which meant that the remnants of Team RAYN followed their leader's lead. Now alone at their table Team RVBS sat in silence, even Blake had put down her _Ninjas of Love II: Ryu's Throbbing Revival_ book down to stare awkwardly at eachother.

"Maybe Pyrrha was right, I guess we should talk things out." Ruby said quietly, not wanting to anger Weiss again but she found the heiress rather distant as she mumbled a weak "yes" and went back to picking at her food.

0-0-0-0

Combat Class: a place where rising students can test their semblances, tactics, and skills against real people who can think, adapt, and act as intelligent opponents. A place where countless survival techniques and lessons can be gleamed if one has the fortitude to accept their tough love. Jaune watched as Ruby sparred against some kid -Forrest Windsor I think?- who was trying to use his battleaxe to cut down the nimble speedster. Ruby, for all her childish innocence, was a well-trained fighter and clearly had the advantage against an opponent who simply did not know how to adapt to someone who preyed on his biggest weakness: speed.

Swinging the battleaxe costed a lot of stamina and, while it could easily take out Ruby with a _precise_ hit, it did him no good as he couldn't keep up with her. Eventually she wore him down and dealt the "killing" blow, knocking him off his feet and sending him out of the arena and his aura into the red zone. Miss Goodwitch, combat class instructor and Deputy Headmistress, walked to the middle of the stage and asked for a battle report.

Weiss stood up. "Miss Goodwitch, Windsor was clearly going much too slow to catch up to such a nimble fighter like Ruby, and, in the end, he was done in by his lack of preparedness for this fight." she sat back down as Ruby walked to her team, beaming brightly at such high praise from her partner. Jaune smiled, things had smoothed over ever since breakfast and he felt like he should apologize. It's just his family was a sore spot, for obvious reasons, and he didn't take kindly to her rapid insinuations. Goodwitch tapped her scroll and brought up the next match.

Jaune Arc vs Cardin Winchester.

Jaune exhaled slowly, Cardin was his name then? The thuggish brute from Oobleck's class yesterday. Said thuggish brute snorted like a bull and went to go get changed as did Jaune, when they both returned they stood their; decked out in their armor and weapons, staring at eachother from across the arena. Jaune scrunched his face slightly as he read his opponent: large, maybe 6'3, wearing heavy armor -good defense, slow speed- and wielding a large mace with some sort of red orb in the middle, a fire crystal perhaps?

Cardin hefted his mace onto his shoulder and smirked. "Hope you don't cry if I break those sunglasses of yours Jauney-boy."

Jaune returned the smirk with his own. "Hope you don't cry when I break your nose coppertop."

Cardin snarled at him and swung his mace into his hands. They stepped forward into the inner arena and waited for Goodwitch to give the signal-

"You may begin!"

Cardin barreled towards him at a slow chug, but with with a lot of power behind him. He swung his mace over his head and brought it down, trying to crush Jaune's head like a grape but he rolled deftly out of the way. Jaune unsheathed Clamos and turned Custos into his shield form before swinging around, Cardin had recovered from his attack and moved again with a large sweep. Jaune dodged backwards and immediately charged into his open guard as Cardin recovered from his swing, he got within a good couple feet and planted his feet into the floor before driving forward with a striking shield bash.

Cardin tumbled backward but recovered with surprising guile as he ducked under another swing from Jaune's sword and uppercutted him with a gloved fist. Jaune, while largely unhurt, was knocked backwards as Cardin brought his mace down onto the floor, using the red crystal in it to create a running line of pure flame that screamed towards Jaune. Luckily, he dodged and hauled ass to intercept Cardin from his side, Jaune did a downwards slash at Cardin but he blocked it with the shaft of his mace and smirked.

"Really Jaune, this is all you can do?" if he was expecting an answer he was wrong, instead Jaune swung his head back and brought it down with a resounding _crack!_ as Jaune's head and aura collided with Cardin's nose. Cardin howled and was thrown backward as his aura, if Jaune was in any pain he took careful steps not to show it, instead, he spun like a whirlwind and whipped his shield like a frisbee as it connected accurately with Winchester's throat, momentarily cutting off circulation and making the boy gag. Jaune charged him and jumped, bringing both of his legs down on Cardin's armored chest as he rode him like a skateboard across the floor.

Cardin shook his head to clear it of the pain just in time to see a shining gladius pierce the area just next to his head. A buzzer sounded throughout the arena as an extra set of stage lights came on and Miss Goodwitch stepped near them, breaking them up as she motioned for the rest of team CRDL to get their leader.

"A good match, can anyone tell me what went wrong and what was right?" she asked the class. Pyrrha stood up and spoke-

"Cardin left himself too open with so many wide swings and, while he had the strength and stamina to back it up, he did not have the speed to recover from Jaune's repeated attacks." Goodwitch nodded and Pyrrha sat down before, finally, the bell rang signalling the end of class.

"Ok class, that's the bell. Remember we have the trip to Forever Fall soon so remember to pick up any missed work." The class shuffled out and Jaune returned from the lockeroom to see his team and Ruby's team there waiting for him. Nora shot up to him and, with an excited smile, began to comment on their fight-

"Jaune that was so cool! You were all like 'I'll break your nose' and then you jumped over him and punched him square and the face and then-"

"Nora, I believe you may have your story wrong." Ren interrupted calmly, sparing his partner from such a storm of words.

"No Ren, I think you just weren't paying attention."

Jaune chuckled at their antics, they were the exact Ying-Yang of eachother, but he couldn't help but wonder just how his leader dealt with such an explosive personality. "Ok team, what's next on the dossier?"

0-0-0-0

Jaune rubbed his temples as Professor- he means, _Doctor_ Oobleck continued his first discussion of the unit: The Faunus Rights Revolution and its lasting social and political impacts on the 4 kingdoms.

"Now, who here has been discriminated against simply because of their Faunus traits?" Doctor Oobleck asked sincerely and, when several students raised their hands, he shook his head in sympathy. "Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence."

Doctor Oobleck took another deep sip of liquid crack before continuing. "I mean- I mean, just look what happened with the White Fang! Now, which one of you can tell me what was considered the turning point in the third year of the war."

Weiss raised a hand an Oobleck called on her. "The battle at Fort Castle." she exclaimed with practiced politeness.

"Precisely! And who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune?" Jaune felt something whistle through the air towards his head and grabbed it to see a crude paper football. Jaune saw his leader out of the corner of his eye shake his head and Jaune just sighed as he threw the damned thing back on the table, he looked up to meet his Professor's eyes which he took as a sign of understanding.

"You my boy!" he exclaimed jovially taking another long sip of his coffee.

"The Faunus could see in the dark, that dumbass Lagune didn't remember that and, in the end, he and his men were slaughtered because no one bothered to check the intel."

Doctor Oobleck cleared his throat. "Language Mr. Arc, but you are quite correct. Lagune did lack the knowledge of the Faunus ability to see in the night despite this fact being well known amongst the human world. Any other ideas perhaps? Mr. Winchester."

Cardin, who had a healthy, or rather unhealthy, amount of bandages around his nose, scoffed and look at his professor. "All I know is that it is easier to train an animal than a soldier."

"Calm down grandpa the war is over, did you remember to take your pill?" Jaune shot back, earning hushed chuckles and a full own snort from Yang as Cardin stood up, ready for a fight.

"Mr. Winchester sit down please. Mr. Arc, please do not antagonize your fellow classmates." Doctor Oobleck said tiredly. With that the bell once again sounded, signalling the end of the hour.

Oobleck sighed. "Remember class, cover the readings I assigned for tomorrow and, please, Mr. Winchester stay behind for a moment. The rest of you, have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow." Cardin looked outraged but reluctantly stayed after one look from Oobleck.

"Well that's the end of today's classes, anyone up for dinner?" Jaune asked his team as Yang's stomach agreed loudly with his statement.

"Guess that's a yes from me."

"Sure, why not."

"Yes, I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Don't forget me!" Nora yelled as she jumped in between them. Jaune released another sigh, a bad habit (didn't they say every time you sighed you exhaled happiness?), he was beginning to develop.

"Food it is then!"

0-0-0-0

The two teams sat around their usual table, feasting on the kitchen's well-prepared food and enjoying their dinner. For the most part talks were going fine, but there seemed to be a large, awkward, blonde elephant in the room.

"I didn't mean what I said Weiss, so sorry." Jaune grumbled, trying to his a slight blush. God, did he hate apologizing.

Weiss huffed but didn't make a rude comment. "So be it, I guess I can overlook it this once."

Some semblance of normality returned to the tables as they, mostly Nora, talked about how crazy their day was and how Ren and Nora had fought over 100 -5 or 6- Beowulves just before third hour (Grimm practical training). Suddenly, a sharp cry sounded from behind them the teams turned around to see Cardin and his gang of thugs pulling on the ears of some bunny faunus.

"Disgusting." Weiss spat as Blake nodded her head, eyes narrowed and jaw set in tightly. Ruby and Nora quietly hissed at the bully's antics and the rest of Team RAYN that would be politely classified as "disapproving".

 _Where is this girl's team? Shouldn't they be here to help her?_ Jaune grit his teeth as they continued to tug on the fragile parts even as she begged for them to release her, Jaune had crushed his plastic cup in his hands long ago. He wanted to help, he really did, but should he? If he did, and things escalated, he could face suspension, group punishment for his team, loads of paperwork, detention with _Port,_ or something -somehow- worse.

No, no way in hell. His dad didn't raise no goddamn bystander, and he wasn't going to watch as this innocent girl got hurt. He stood up, cracking his shoulders as he did, and he stepped from out his table, ignoring Ren's glances, as he lumbered over to the hooligans.

They didn't even see him until he was right behind one of them with a stupid-looking green mohawk. He stood nearly a head taller -even with that stupid haircut- and was easily twice as built, greeny turned around smack dab into Jaune as he craned his head up. The larger boy's scowl made the smaller boy tug at his leader's shirt sleeve like a small child.

"What is it Russel can't you see I'm- Oh, it's you." Cardin frowned as he looked at the boy who had broken his nose, one tough fix from the nurse and the help of his aura and it'd be fixed by tomorrow, but he felt stupid with these freaking bandages on.

"Yeah it's me, can I ask what's going on? Sounds like she wants you to leave her alone." Jaune nearly growled as the smaller bunny girl looked up at the freshman, teary-eyed and confused.

"Just saying hi to an upperclassman. We weren't doing anything wrong right Vel?" he asked, casting a thinly veiled glare down at the more timid girl who tried to avoid his gaze, _yeah that shit doesn't fly with me_.

"You look at me when I'm talking to you Winchester." Jaune said, grabbing the collar of Cardin's shirt and jerking him roughly to look at him. Cardin looked taken aback, as long as he knew no one said that to him except his mother.

"You don't look at her when I'm talking got that? Now you're going to leave, or I'll break whatever's not broken of your goddamn nose! Now beat it!" Jaune barked as he tugged on Cardin's shirt again, throwing him slightly in the other direction. Cardin looked like he was about to have a melt down, face and red and breathing labored he reluctantly lumbered away to go sit at another table.

"You ok?" Jaune asked as he knelt down slightly to his upperclassman.

"Y-Yeah, they just get rowdy sometimes. My name's Velvet, Velvet Scarlatina."

"Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." Jaune exclaimed, hands on his hips and chest puffed out slightly which caused the girl to giggle.

"I'm sure." Jaune deflated at that.

"Why does every girl I say that to have the exact same reaction?" he complained with faux depression. Velvet giggled again and patted him slightly-

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll charm your way into some girl's heart." and with that, she left throwing her food away and exiting the doors.

Jaune stared as she left, a smiling tugging the corners of his lips. He had the feeling his dad would be proud of him as he returned to his table, pride properly stoked and the feeling of righteous good in his heart.

"Did you get her scroll number huh lady-killer?" Yang teased as his pride and righteous good shattered like glass.

"Damnit Yang."

0-0-0-0

 **Another chapter done and I got to say: I like it. As you can see the chronological events are slightly mixed but it won't be anything too heavy, chalk it up to some creative input I guess. By the way, just to clear things up, Jaune refers to Hector as Hector or just "father" but he refers to Nicholas as "dad" as he see Nicholas as his actual father-figure.**

 **Anyways I need some help. I wanna decide on pairings for this story so I'm opening a poll! Vote for who you want and winner takes all, I'm only doing pairing I think would make sense so keep that in mind.**

 **Pyrrha-**

 **Coco-**

 **Velvet-**

 **Ruby-**

 **Weiss-**

 **Yang-**

 **Vote quickly guys and until next time!**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	7. Chapter 7

**Back again for a Friday chapter everyone! I appreciate the support for this fic and my other one I'm currently working on so thanks a lot to you guys. If you like this chapter go ahead and leave a review as well as anything you think I need to work on as a writer. With summer coming soon I'll be much much more free to write!**

 **Thanks again!**

 **Oh yes! The winner of the poll is... Pyrrha! Sorry for those who didn't want Arkos and congrats to those who voted!**

 **But before I start to build that relationship, a few readers asked me if I could instead do a harem route. Well to that I say: what do you guys want? If the reviews say yes then I'll go that route but if not I'll just stick with Pyrrha.**

 **Write your answer and thanks!**

0-0-0-0

The rest of the day had gone normally after that point. Dinner finished with a notable lack of fighting although Jaune could feel the burning glares of Team CRDL in the back of his head until they finished. After eating their fill, with Nora emptying out most of the dessert table, the teams decided to return back to their dorms to finish homework and relax for a brief period. However, something was tugging at Jaune's mind. That dream of his, those people he killed, no matter what he did no matter what anyone said those types of dreams would always come back when he was anxious or upset.

They brought back some pretty bad times and even worse experiences. If he was being honest then what he did over his first 9 years of life had scarred him something bad, small children shouldn't be forced to experience something so traumatic so soon. But, Jaune had experienced just about every traumatic thing in the book barring some things and he needed to talk to someone. Someone he could trust, sure he'd talked to his family about it before but the circumstances of his childhood were far from being in the realm of something you can tell a therapist. He thought about who he could talk to about it: Team RVBS wouldn't really work as he didn't know much about Blake, Ruby probably couldn't relate to him, and he didn't trust Weiss and, especially, Nora not to blab.

His team my be a better fit, but he suspected some things were wrong with that too. Yang was boisterous and gossipy, so she wasn't exactly the top of his list of people to divulge secrets to. Ren might be a better fit, but his team leader was something of an enigma and he wasn't sure that his partner would be able to relate or even truly help with something this heavy. No, he needed someone who had felt this kind of pressure for sure and who he knew well enough to trust them with such a thing and only one name came to mind: Pyrrha, the Goddess of Victory.

Quite the ironic nickname considering who she was on a team on. But still, she, from what she had told them in their personal moments with their team, knew all too well the pressures of expectations and dealing with a childhood that went too fast.

As they returned to their dorms Jaune meandered over to the redheaded warrioress and leaned in slightly. "Hey Pyrrha, mind if you come see me on the roof tonight. I need to talk to you about something important between us."

She looked at him somewhat concerned, her friend wasn't exactly the most sentimental person she had ever met so whatever he needed to talk about must have been important. "Of course Jaune, we're friends and that means I'm here for whatever you need." she said reassuringly, unfortunately their exchange got caught by a certain buxom blonde.

"Oh? So you and Jauney are going to do the do on the roof huh? So naughty!" Pyrrha sputtered as RVBS regarded them with veiled interest, embarrassed flushing, indignant anger worse than even Joan's, and childlike carelessness respectively.

"N-N-No! W-We- I mean, J-Jaune and I aren't!" she sputtered as Jaune just shook his head, didn't she know that responding to people like Yang only spurred them on and gave them precious ammunition? Still, she agreed to help him and that meant a lot in his book...

"As long as they don't disturb my studying, but if they get into a mess I'm not helping a bit." huffed Weiss angrily.

Oh yes, Yang was still talking.

0-0-0-0

 **2 hours later...**

It was currently just a quarter past 8 on a Thursday and Jaune found himself alone with the Champion herself, _a position many would kill to be in_ he thought. Suddenly, words that Yang had told them when they got back to the dorms rushed through his hand and he shook his head away from a bright blush. "What Fuchsia would do to me if I did _"_ he mumbled quietly.

"So Jaune, you wanted to talk to me?" he could have sworn she had a small blush too, but maybe it was just the moonlight.

"Pyrrha, what do you know about childhood pressure and expectations too big for someone to handle?" he asked earnestly, sure he knew some things but he wanted to gauge the situation first.

Pyrrha's face pulled into a sour expression for a moment before turning into a contemplative one. "A whole lot actually, my mother always wanted for me to be the best at everything involving combat, no matter what. And my dad, who was completely smitten with my mother, was devastated when she left so he tried to fill that gap by turning me into her image. It took a pretty big toll on who I was and how I spent my childhood, and I'm assuming this has something to do with you?"

He nodded solemnly. "Pyrrha, we're friends right? Even though we may not have known eachother long we're on a team now, and that means one day we'll need to save eachother right? That's a complete bond of trust y'know?"

Shen nodded as well but didn't say anything. "I wanted to talk to you about something that's been aching me for awhile, a problem from my childhood that hasn't gone away and never will, but I needed to talk to someone who kind of understands."

"Jaune..." she trailed off.

"Pyrrha, I'm not going to lie: I've done some pretty bad things. Things people get life sentences for, but I never had a choice in them; before my family took me in I was a near mental case, and even now I have to deal with that."

Pyrrha stood rigid as she heard her friend release those pent up emotions he had held in for so long.

"Emotional outbursts, flashbacks, even episodes of suicide and, on one occasion, hallucinations. The worst part is, is that I can't go to a therapist because this isn't something they could hope to help, atleast not for me." Pyrrha's breath hitched, to see such a tower of strength start to crumble was uncomfortable and frankly a little terrifying. Suicidal episodes and hallucinations? She wondered what happened to Jaune to turn him into this.

"How do I do it Pyrrha? How do I move past it all and learn to live with it? Why can't I just forgive myself for what I've done, I knew I didn't have a choice and I'm here to make up for it but it just won't go away." Jaune's hands had been balled into fists as he grit his teeth, he didn't cry not ever. Suddenly, he felt the simultaneously cold and warm feeling of Pyrrha enveloping him.

"It's ok Jaune, something like this... It isn't something you just get over. Everyone has their doubts and everyone experiences trauma differently, even I haven't gotten over what happened to me when I was young but I keep going. And, now that I have you all, I feel like there's more to myself than just the 'Champion of Mistral' or the 'Goddess of Victory'." Jaune blinked, he heard similar answers but something about this... understanding struck him to his core. He felt that familiar ache in his chest from back when he was a kid, and he didn't know what to do.

"Thanks Pyr." he whispered out hoarsely, a small, silver tear narrowly escaping his eye and trailing down his cheek.

What neither of them knew, was that a ginger head of hair was listening in the whole time.

Tomorrow was going to be great.

0-0-0-0

 **The next day, combat class...**

"And that concludes today's match, and now I'm sure all of you are wondering why your schedules have been altered slightly. We are currently about to embark on a field expedition to Forever Fall forest to collect sap samples to judge the behavior of various chemicals on Grimm species." Professor Goodwitch announced as the class devolved into hushed murmurs that were quickly silenced by the Deputy's crop.

"Settle down, in your careers you won't always have a full debrief or a chance to schedule your missions. Sometime they will be on the fly and you will have to make do as such." She said, eyeing the class carefully.

"You will be assisting Professor Peach and I and then turning in a small report on what we find. Now prepare your teams we leave and lunch." there was some groaning about lack of food but most people just shuffled off in various states of excitement or lack thereof.

"Ooh! I heard Forever Fall is so beautiful don't you think so Ren!?" Nora shouted excitedly, much to grievance of her teammates.

"I don't know, I've never been there before." Ren replied calmly, Jaune would never not be surprised at his partner's ability to weather the storm so to speak.

"Are you kidding, my sister has been there a couple times and sent me pictures! It's a super cool place!" Jaune spoke excitedly, if he was being honest he had always wanted to visit there just because of how Tawny described it.

As they went to collect their gear they saw a lone figure waiting near the entrance: Cardin Winchester. A wave of unsettlement rippled through the teams but they trudged onward, and they weren't surprised when Winchester came waltzing over to them.

"Hey guys! I need to talk to Jauney-boy real quick. Just for a moment." Ren exchanged a look with Jaune before nodding.

"Come on guys, Jaune will meet us there." there was some quiet protest but it was silenced with one of Ren's "serious looks".

The two went over to an empty hall as classes were still going and most freshman in the locker rooms at the moment. Cardin and leaned against the wall leisurely before regarding Jaune.

"So, I heard your little lover's talk with Pyrrha on the rooftop last night." now, it took a lot to make Jaune go cold, but this counted as one of the few things that did. Cardin couldn't quite see behind Jaune's sunglasses but he could feel the sudden shift in mood.

"Yep, heard all about how your probably murdered some people." Jaune's hands balled into fists once more, "and furthermore, how you're a certified loon who should be locked up."

"You got some point in all that drivel?" Jaune spat venomously.

"Just saying it would be a shame if _someone_ started a rumor about all that and it _somehow_ got to the staff who would probably look into _someone's_ record to prove these claims false and notice some... discrepencies." he finished with a dangerous smirk.

Jaune un-balled his fists as he took a deep breath. "You know Cardin, you're not all together that smart. If I really was a nutcase then why on earth would you attempt to threaten me? Who knows what I could do?"

The big thuggish idiot took a moment to absorb that, and then it was his turn to get shaken up. "If anything happens to me you freak my team will know and they'll tell the teachers-"

"Assuming I'll give them enough time. I'm a fast worker Winchester." Jaune snarled at Cardin as he backed up slightly, just now noticing how empty and alone the hallway was now.

"Yeah right, act tough if you wan't but this ain't over. Far from it you goddamn psycho." Cardin spat before running back to the locker rooms, looking over his shoulder to see Jaune sitting there waving at him.

He may have broken his record.

0-0-0-0

 **At Forever Fall forest...**

"Alright, get with your team and collect a jar of sap for each member! Watch out for Grimm and please be quick, Ursai are known to become more active as the day progresses. Oh yes, and any broken jars of sap will result in minus points!" Goodwitch hollered, the shy form of Professor Peach hidden behind her like a child on their first day of Kindergarten.

Forever Fall was quite the beautiful place: a forest where it always seemed to be Autumn and unique fauna grew in abundance making it a hot spot for biological surveys. Not to mention the fact the sap known to be plentiful in the trees was highly sought after by the creatures of Grimm, and further known to change their biological makeup and anatomy slightly.

Team RAYN and Team RVBS were together in the forest, collecting jars of sap easily and trying to prevent Nora from sucking all the stuff down in the meantime.

"Damn, this tree's tapped. I still need almost half a jar." shouted Jaune to the others around a small clearing.

"I saw a small grove over along the path that should have some untapped trees." Yang shouted back as she filled the last of her jar and watched as Ruby attempted to put Nora in a headlock to prevent her from biting down on a tree.

"I'm a tree vampire! Bleh! Bleh!" she cheered as Ruby bucked wildly under her flailing form.

"H-Help~ M-M-Mee~" Ruby shouted as she was shook back and forth, _not my issue at the moment_ Jaune thought as he followed the trail careful to look for any hidden Grimm. Soon enough he found himself at the place that Yang spoke of. He walked over to the tree when he heard the faint rustling from behind him as well as the muffled voices of some group of people.

"huh, students?" he mumbled quietly to himself, shrugging he returned to tapping the tree when he heard an awful sound. _Buzzing_ like some kind of chainsaw from hell, weirdly high pitched and loud like a bug.

"Wha-" he said as he turned around only to see a large black cloud of something coming straight at him. _Rapier Wasps!_ he mental shouted, creatures that could pierce aura like it didn't exist and known to swarm until death. He couldn't hope to fight so many at once, and that meant he was going to be swarmed even if he ran as fast as he could!

Jaune's aura, reacting to the negative feelings flared. A red glow enveloping him as the grove was punctuated by the smell of what could only be described as "burning meat". Jaune's breathing became faster as he felt heat pool beneath his clothes, flooding every inch of him. He began to choke slightly as the smell became more pungent and the air became superheated. Heat waves enveloped the small clearing as the Rapier Wasps closed in, they began to slow slightly as the front layer started to literally cook as the air grew hotter.

Steam began to envelope the air around where Jaune was as the trees and greenery bent and warped as the heat piled on. Suddenly, his aura flashed and the world was covered in red. Fire, burning like Hell itself and guided by the singular purpose to protect its user, the Rapier Wasps fell to the ground in a pile of ash and dust. Vision, smell, hearing, and breathing returned to Jaune as he put the pieces together quickly.

He bolted to where he heard the voices and burst through a hidden clearing to find none other than Cardin Winchester himself and his gang of lackeys frozen in surprise. Jaune's vision began to blur as foreign thoughts and images took over.

 _-A man, alone against a tide of creatures so alike to Grimm, yet something alien all the same-_

 _-Another man, in some kind of fortress or castle surrounded by other men of great size and strength-_

 _-Finally, a familiar man. Garbed in spartanic armor standing over a small boy who quivered before his father's gaze.-_

"AAAAAAGGGH" Jaune roared as he slammed into Cardin, pinning him against a tree as his teammates sat there like a dumb flock of pigeons. In between a pissed off Demigod and a tree, Cardin's armor began to give way to the crushing force of Jaune hands against it.

The sound of a can being crushed echoed throughout the small clearing as Cardin's eyes widened. Flailing like a helpless child he struck out with an armored hand, surprised and horrified when it landed and knocked the glasses of Jaune. But what really terrified Cardin, was when Jaune turned back to him.

Blue eyes. Normal in every way except they _glowed_ not just metaphorically or "with anger" but a sort of dim glow that gave off a small amount of light. They were somewhat light, not a deep royal like his was, but something akin to icebergs or some other ice-related analogy. Cardin shook as Jaune continued to press down, the pressure beginning to get to him as his breathing became constricted, Jaune huffed and panted hard like a rabid dog as those ghostly eyes bored in Cardin's skull.

"Jaune!? Jaune where are you?" came the familiar voice of Yang from around the clearing. Jaune blinked, once, twice, and shook his head roughly. He dropped Cardin who immediately set out to remove his crumpled chestplate as Jaune walked over to pick up his slightly smudged glasses. He put them on and the last of the tension disappeared. He could here Team RAYN and RVBS close in on where they were a shouted out to them.

"Just a small Grimm ambush! We're fine!" he lied to them, looking at Cardin with a mask of perfect non-emotion.

"I'll be needing _your_ sap Cardin. Hope you won't mind."

All Cardin could do is whimper.

0-0-0-0

 **Woohoo! A great chapter for today as summer comes sooner and sooner! We get to see Jaune's powers as a demigod and I promise you they aren't the last of them I swear. As you can I see I set up Pyrrha already in case a harem is not where you want to see this story go!**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello and as I promised the next chapter is out for this week! Now that summer is here I will have a lot of chances to right more often so look forward to that! I've been writing so much for "Needle in a Haystack" that I almost forgot about this fic, but I did not so here is the next chapter. But first a little announcement.**

 **Thanks for the support and I have decided on a plan for the harem route. I think I will stick with Arkos,** ** _but_** **I will drawing in Blake into a three-way pairing for you guys. A lot of people liked her and she was the second most voted out of all the poll participants so I feel like this won't be too big a stretch. You may not see it happening until a few more chapters but I promise it is coming!**

 **Enjoy.**

0-0-0-0

"Oum Jaune we were worried about you!" Ruby shouted as he came out of the clearing, all alone seeing as how Team CRDL disappeared after he had attacked them. His team as well as Team RVBS was all there, hands full of sap jars as Jaune smiled at them.

"Sorry about that, I thought I heard some Grimm so I hightailed it out of there." he laughed, although it seemed to lack a note of sincerity to it. Ren raised an eyebrow but did not react, as they wandered back to Goodwitch and Peach they made small talk out of nothing oblivious to the man miles off and high above them.

On the eastern cliffs bordering Forever Fall and the Emerald Forest, a tall man garbed in stereotypical biker gear stood as he observed the small party of hunters. He chewed on the inside of his lip slightly before grunting and turning back into the confines of the forest.

"So he finally shows some progress." was all he grumbled to himself as he disappeared.

...

The two teams arrived back at the base camp at the set time as students counted off to show that they were here. Team CRDL looked shaken, with Cardin lacking his breastplate and a jar of sap that brought up some questions.

"Mr. Winchester what happened to your breastplate?" Professor Goodwitch asked pointedly.

"J-Just a small Ursa ma'am, it got lured by the sap and took me by surprise but we were able to get away without injury." he whispered hoarsely as his team nodded along, Jaune took a small amount of sick amusement in the fact that in some poetic way they were telling the truth.

"Hmm, go to the infirmary anyway just to make sure. Unfortunately, since you did not aquire your sap, you will receive a zero on this assignment." Cardin nodded woodenly but didn't make another sound.

"Heh, who know Mr. Big-Shot would get so spooked over some little Ursa." snorted Yang as Nora chuckled gleefully.

"I wish it broke his legs though." she muttered near silently.

"Nora!" scolded Ren to which she just giggled and made some excuse. Honestly, Jaune wanted to get back to Beacon and collapse on his bed, he had this bad feeling in his stomach and he felt the sooner he got away the better.

 _I've never done that before, could it be my semblance or..._ he trailed off, to be honest he had no idea what kind of powers being a demigod grants you. Especially the demigod of war, in all his spars with his Father he never once saw him do that. The bullhead jostled and he fought down a grimace, Ren had given him some of his herbal medicine and, while tasting like lake scum, did seem to do the trick.

He shook his head again, that would be something for a later day. He needed to get some rest as he realized just how drained and exhausted he was, his eyes flickered over to Cardin as his team just sat on the bullhead quietly, he trusted their survival instincts to not go talk to anyone about what they just saw or else he would counter-argue they attacked him with Rapier Wasps.

The bullhead landed after a painfully long ride and the gathered students got off. Many went their own ways with their team while others just headed back to the dorms, Jaune chose the latter and excused himself from Team RVBS and his team.

"Sorry guys, I'm feeling kind of worn out so I'm going to head back to the dorm." his team leader nodded silently as Nora wagged him around begging for him to make some pancakes, however, Pyrrha looked a bit more concern.

As he turned to leave she caught his hand lightly. "Jaune, are you sure you're ok?" she tentatively, she didn't want to provoke him but at the same time she needed to know if something was wrong.

Jaune smiled tiredly and tried to assure her. "Really, I'm ok Pyrrha but today has left me dead tired." he wasn't even lying, whatever that power of his was it really did exhaust him, but what he didn't tell her was that he needed to head back to the dorm and think for a bit.

The trip back to the dorm was quick, and Jaune was too lost in his thoughts to notice. Getting back, he would forgo a shower tonight opting instead to have one in the morning, and collapsed on his bed in a heap of exhaustion. Mere minutes after getting into bed he fell asleep, and his thoughts carried him to an unknown place...

 _"He's beautiful, look at that gorgeous blonde hair."_

 _"Indeed, the boy seems strong and healthy. Nothing I didn't expect from my son."_

 _"Remember dear, we had a talk about this."_

 _"Of course my love, I remember. What should we name this little bundle of joy?"_

 _"Hmm, I like Jaune."_

 _"Yes, Jaune, a good strong name for a man. I love it don't you?"_

 _"Yes, quite a beautiful name for our boy..."_

 _"Yes, quite my dear and- Kali? What's wrong...!"_

Jaune opened his eyes which seemed to weigh about a thousand pounds. It was the weekend and he felt he needed it; he shook his head as that strange dream he had got further and further away. There was no image, no sense other than hearing, nothing but those far off words of someone who sounded so familiar yet so alien. Shrugging off his dirty clothes he climbed into the shower and let the heat wash away everything else.

Getting out he heard Ren and Ruby talking with eachother just out in the hall.

"Yeah, we're heading down to the docks to check out the new arrivals." she then added in a hushed whisper. "Between you and me, I think Weiss just wants to see who we will be up against."

"I do not!" huffed the indignant heiress from the inside of their dorm.

"I'm not sure what we will do, maybe train a little bit." Ren added stoically, the man was as unfazed as ever.

Jaune decided to make himself known to his friends as he stepped out of the dorm. They turned to look at him in surprise, especially Ren which immediately set off warning bells in his head.

"Everything alright guys?" Jaune asked, they both shook the looks from their faces.

"Nothing, it's just, are you feeling alright." Ruby as hesitantly, Jaune narrowed his eyes at her.

"Yeah, is everything ok?"

"It's just that, yesterday you were out cold like a rock. But, you kept talking in your sleep or something. We couldn't really make it out but we thought you were having an nightmare so we tried to wake you up." Ren paused for a moment. "But no matter what we did, nothing happened you wouldn't wake up. Even when Nora body slammed you."

Now that he mentioned it, his chest did feel a little sore. "Ok, but I'm fine now so no need to worry."

"Yeah, maybe you were just that tired." Ruby shrugged as the rest of her team got out, Nora leading the pack. Ren and Jaune waved them away as Weiss and Blake followed them, now left alone Ren and Jaune looked at eachother.

"So, want to do some training?" Jaune suggested.

"Yes, let me go tell Yang and Pyrrha." he said, walking back into the dorm where Yang and Pyrrha had finally awoken.

0-0-0-0

 **5 hours later...**

Jaune rolled under one of Yang's punches and swiped with his sword. She dodged backwards and fired of a couple more rounds that he caught with his shield; Yang was a tank and could dish out damage just as much as she could take it.

Jaune charged and nimbly dodged another couple of shells by rolling to the side and shield bashing Yang. Knocked off her balance Jaune swung hard at her narrowly missing her hair, she rolled backwards and laughed as she stood up.

"That was close Jauney-boy..." she trailed off as a single strand of hair waved passed her face.

Jaune chuckled. "Apparently very close."

She didn't move, instead she looked at the floor as Jaune eyed her from across the training area. "Hey Yang? You alright there? I didn't slice something bad did I?"

"You!" was all she growled before her hair ignited and she came at him full speed, gauntlets ready to bash. Jaune tried to counter to the best of his ability by once more rolling out of the way. Yang turned around and blindly fired more shots at him before coming in for a close quarters engagement.

She pounded his shield time and time again and, if he weren't so strong, he was fairly certain his arm would have broken. All the while she kept screaming incoherently like a berserker, but Jaune noticed something.

Her balance was off and so was her guard, she was so adamant about attacking that she forgot to defend her open areas. Smiling slyly, Jaune deflected one of Yang's punches by shifting his shield, throwing her to his right side and opening up her stomach. Jaune stabbed hard into the open area as Yang's aura crackled briefly, shattering at the powerful blow as her hair turned back to normal as well as her eyes. She hacked out a cough as she wobbled to her feet.

"Damn Jaune, you really know how to hold back." she coughed, Jaune shrugged sheepishly before going over to help her up.

"And you need to control that temper."

"It's my hair, what do you expect?" her attitude seemed much better, but he could still hear a soft note of bitterness in it. They smiled at eachother before hearing Ren and Pyrrha come up behind them, their match had just ended with Pyrrha winning.

"Good job you two, I'm quite impressed with the progress you guys are making." Pyrrha complimented, this whole training session was Ren's idea to help focus on their weaknesses, and how each other teammate could pick up the slack.

They returned to their dorms and as they approached they could hear the sounds of fighting coming from Team RVBS room. Ren and Jaune eyed eachother cautiously and walked towards it.

When they got close they could hear distinct voices: Weiss and Blake.

"You realize you're defending an organization that hates humanity right?" they could hear Weiss ask, presumably to Blake. "The faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"There's no such thing as pure evil!" Blake shouted, they didn't mean to eavesdrop but this sounded bad. "Why do you think they hate humanity? It's because of people like Cardin, people like you!"

"People like me?!"

"You're discriminatory!"

It was at that point Jaune decided to usher his team back into the dorms, this sounded really bad and he had a bad feeling in his stomach. He could see on Yang's face she wanted to go talk to her sister about this but Jaune shook his head.

"They need some time alone I think." Jaune whispered as they entered into the dorm.

Suddenly, they heard Blake shout something followed by silence. _Uh oh, I think I know what that means_ sure enough, Blake suddenly shout out of the room at lightning speed, he watched her disappear from the hallway.

Ruby and Nora poked their heads out, crestfallen as their teammate disappeared. Both of them turned to look at Jaune as Nora entered their dorm to spend some time with Ren and Yang doing the same with Ruby.

Feeling utterly helpless, but also curious beyond imagination, Jaune decided to follow Blake just a little bit. Part of it was to make sure she didn't do anything drastic, a person who feels alone and afraid makes dumb decisions. Running down the hall Jaune exited the dormitories to try and pick up where Blake went, because of his unique blood Jaune could more or less smell which way Blake went. He followed her scent down to the courtyard where, sure enough, she stood in front of the statue. Jaune was about to go talk to her before she did something he didn't expect: she took off her bow to reveal a small pair of cat ears.

Jaune blinked in surprise, sure he had some suspicious but it was still a little surreal to see it in person. Once more, he found himself wanting to go talk to her but he was stopped as he heard a voice.

"I knew you would look better without the bow."

0-0-0-0

 **Sorry for the short and kinda boring chapter, really this was a filler setup sort of one so the next one should be better. Nothing much beyond that so enjoy your day because I know I will.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


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